Some regional transit agencies said they were preparing for outages as early as Thursday afternoon in anticipation of a possible shutdown at 12:01 a.m. the manufacture. They are finalizing plans to communicate with passengers if a strike is not prevented, and some working with other agencies to direct people to alternative buses. Disruptions to passenger systems operating on freight lines will be felt in many major metropolitan areas, including Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. The threat of a strike also eliminated most Amtrak service outside the Northeast Corridor, forcing travelers to find other modes of transportation or cancel plans at the last minute. Amtrak canceled service on all of its long-distance routes starting Thursday, most of which have daily trips in each direction and provide cross-country connections for thousands of Americans. Trains between 24 and 28 a day will not operate while the service is suspended. “One can only hope that there will be some resolution before Friday,” said Karen Finucane Clarkson, a spokeswoman for Virginia Railway Express, which carries passengers from the Northern Virginia suburbs to the nation’s capital. “We really hope we can run a service on Friday. That would be the best for the region.” A strike would involve workers for the two private railroads that host VRE trains — CSX and Norfolk Southern — and would result in the suspension of all service. Several commuter rail agencies and the vast majority of Amtrak routes operate on lines owned by freight railroads whose workers are threatening to strike. Passenger trains, grain shipments to halt as rail strike looms Freight railroads and unions representing their workers are negotiating a new contract as part of a long-running dispute over wages and working conditions, but have not reached an agreement. A federal “cooling off” period ends Friday, opening the possibility of a strike or lockout. The Biden administration has sought to resolve the labor conflict to avert the possibility of one of the most disruptive strikes in recent US history. The Association of American Railroads estimates that a shutdown could cost the economy more than $2 billion a day and “could idle more than 7,000 trains daily and cause retail product shortages, widespread production disruptions, job losses and layoffs for hundreds thousands of passenger rail customers. “ The labor dispute began to hit long-distance businesses earlier in the week. Hundreds of Amtrak passengers had to change or cancel plans as the railroad cut cross-country trains on 10 of its 14 long-distance routes before extending service suspensions on Wednesday. The carrier said the changes to these multi-day journeys, in the face of a possible strike, were necessary to avoid passengers being interrupted during a route. The D.C. to Boston corridor, the nation’s busiest, would be largely unaffected by a strike because Amtrak owns the tracks. But Amtrak said more cancellations are possible, including on state-sponsored short-haul services that run on freight lines. Amtrak runs most of its 21,000 route miles on track owned, maintained and shipped by freight railroads. Major regional train systems on Wednesday continued to encourage passengers to plan alternative journeys later this week. Chicago’s Metra said customers could see disruptions starting Thursday night on lines that run freight lines. The agency said BSNF Railway and Union Pacific plan to begin curtailing services during the Thursday afternoon rush in preparation for a work stoppage. Four lines that have service contracts through freight rail lines will be affected. Amtrak cancellations, passenger frustration grow amid strike threat Metrolink, a seven-line network that serves Los Angeles and other Southern California communities, has been warning customers since last week of possible disruptions, saying Wednesday that some disruptions would likely begin Thursday night. Five of the system’s seven lines use lines owned by freight rail lines, meaning 70% of customers could be affected. “We are coordinating with our rail partners to provide as many alternative services as possible, but there may be full service cancellations on some lines,” the agency said in a service update. The Maryland Department of Transportation continued to issue notices Wednesday to passengers about the “immediate suspension” of all service on two of the three MARC commuter lines serving the District — one to Baltimore and one to Martinsburg, W.Va. officials said MARC provides passengers with a list of buses and other transit alternatives. “The MARC Train is prepared to operate regularly scheduled service on the Camden and Brunswick lines if CSX does not face a strike by its unionized workers,” said Veronica Battisti, spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration. In Virginia, the suspension of VRE service is likely to affect up to 10,000 daily commuters. The railroad, which until recently carried about 5,200 passengers — down about 70 percent from pre-pandemic levels — saw a surge in ridership after Labor Day as some Metro riders switch to the system amid a week-long shutdown of several of its stations metro south of Reagan National Airport. “If there is a rail strike, that means for those Blue and Yellow line riders as well as VRE riders, there will be no rail service as an option in the District,” Clarkson said. Everything you need to know about the impending rail strike VRE is preparing announcements to run at its stations on Friday if the system is forced to shut down. The agency is also coordinating with commuter and regional bus systems in Northern Virginia that could be used as alternatives. As of Wednesday afternoon, officials said, the outlook for a The strike was still unclear and there were hopes of no results on Friday. “Thursday afternoon, we’ll have to make a decision,” Clarkson said. “If it goes down to the wire then it could be the early hours [Friday] in the morning before we can get anything out… Then we’ll send out alerts.” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a rail infrastructure advocate, called the unions’ demands “reasonable” and urged the railroads to work toward a deal that avoids a strike and major impacts on commerce and transportation. “Given that Amtrak has already preemptively canceled a number of long-distance trains in anticipation of a strike, it doesn’t take much imagination to predict the chaos that a strike would cause,” he said.
