UPDATE: Amtrak working to restore canceled trips after railroad strike averted
UPDATE, 8:45 a.m., Thursday: President Joe Biden announced Thursday morning that freight railway companies and workers had reached a tentative agreement that will improve worker pay and keep trains running. It was unclear if Thursday's canceled Heartland Flyer return trip from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City would be rescheduled.
Amtrak released a statement Thursday morning, saying the company was working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on the first available departures.
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Original story below:
The Heartland Flyer will travel south from Oklahoma City on Thursday but won’t make the return trip as Amtrak starts halting service in advance of a threatened national rail strike.
The Heartland Flyer makes a southbound trek to Fort Worth, Texas, every morning with a northbound return to Oklahoma City each night. Annual ridership has neared 70,000 in recent years.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Amtrak announced that while its operations are not a part of the labor negotiations, it operates all of its 21,000 route miles outside of its northeast corridor on tracks owned, maintained and dispatched by freight railroads.
An array of freight railroad unions are set to strike on Friday if a deadline to reach contract agreements is not met. Members of one union rejected a tentative deal while two others ratified agreements and three more remained in negotiations.
More:Amtrak budget increase expected to expand Heartland Flyer frequency and service to Kansas
Amtrak explained the cancellations involve trips they can't guarantee will reach their destination by 12:01 a.m. Friday. The Heartland Flyer typically returns to Oklahoma City about 9:30 p.m. but can sometimes run late as it did on Wednesday when Amtrak announced it was running 40 minutes late on its way to Fort Worth.
Trains immediately affected Wednesday were the longest-duration trains — the Chicago to Los Angeles Southwest Chief; the Chicago to Seattle/Portland Empire Builder; the Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., California Zephyr; and the Los Angeles to San Antonio portion of the Texas Eagle.
Could freight rail strike affect Heartland Flyer's trip to OU-Texas football game?
The Heartland Flyer is one of 24 service routes Amtrak is shutting down. Should the strike take place, it could impact the annual OU-Texas game trek in which extra cars are added to the Heartland Flyer for what is traditionally one of its busiest times of the year.
“As soon as Amtrak notifies us the Heartland Flyer is running again, we can resume our plans to have additional cars running,” said Brenda Perry Clark, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Department of Transportation. “But we won’t know until this is resolved.”
Perry Clark said a notice will be posted at the Santa Fe Train Station, and Amtrak announced it will be contacting affected customers.
Potential rail strike would exacerbate supply chain issues
Government officials and a variety of businesses are bracing for the possibility of a nationwide rail strike that would paralyze shipments of everything from crude and clothing to cars, a potential calamity for businesses that have struggled for more than two years due to COVID-19 related supply chain breakdowns.
The tentative deals reached on Wednesday are based closely on the recommendations of an emergency board President Joe Biden appointed that called for 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses in a five-year deal that’s retroactive to 2020. Those recommendations also include one additional paid leave day a year and higher health insurance costs.
The key unions that represent the conductors and engineers who drive trains are holding out in the hope that railroads will agree to go beyond those recommendations and address some of their concerns about unpredictable schedules and strict attendance policies that they say make it difficult to take any time off.
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They say the job cuts major railroads have made over the past six years — eliminating nearly one-third of their workers — have made a difficult job even harder although the railroads maintain their operations have just become more efficient as they rely on fewer, longer trains.
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Amtrak halting Heartland Flyer service before threatened rail strike
