Amtrak suspends Adirondack Line until September

PLATTSBURGH, NY (WCAX) – Amtrak service on the Adirondack Line will be out of service for the entire summer.

Last month, Amtrak initially said a six-week track repair project in Quebec would only last about six weeks, or until June 30. But over the weekend, authorities confirmed that all service between Saratoga Springs and Montreal will now be suspended until at least September 9, derailing the busy summer travel season.

North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas described the new developments as a “comedy of mismanagement” in a brief statement on Monday.

“The old frustration rhetoric of ‘what a way to run a railroad’ was applied to this ridiculous situation,” Douglas said. “You shut down a railroad for three years during the pandemic and well beyond, but you don’t use that time to improve conditions. Then you restart operations in April 2023, only to discover a few months later what appears to be a heat-related problem with the railroad that led to the shutdown last summer. Then you wait almost until the summer of 2024 to make a repair agreement that you now find out will take three months instead of the six weeks that were announced.” Douglas says he hopes the state’s congressional delegation can get some accountability.

“It is unbelievable that an ongoing dispute between Amtrak and Canadian National Railway over the maintenance of less than 40 miles of track in Canada is hampering international travel between the United States and Canada and blocking a critical transportation option for New Yorkers in the north of the country,” Steve Strauss, executive director of the Empire State Passengers Assoc., said in a statement.

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