MONTREAL — Quebec travelers who hoped to visit New York by train this summer will now have to wait until the fall.
No passenger trains are expected to run between Montreal and the Big Apple until September due to maintenance work on the tracks after Amtrak reached an agreement with Canadian National Railway (CN) last month.
American Railway timetables show that service from Manhattan will go no further on the so-called Adirondack Line than the town of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York between May 20 and on September 9.
The new schedule sees service resuming 10 weeks later than planned, well beyond the busiest time of the season, based on a joint statement released by rail companies on May 18.
On the website, attempts to book tickets for summer travel on the Adirondack Line result in an error message stating “no trains or buses are scheduled on the travel date” selected, citing the next available day as September 9 or 10, depending on the city of departure.
Amtrak said service would now be suspended until September 8 “as (Canadian National) continues to advance work on its line in Canada.”
“We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience,” spokesman Jason Abrams said in an email Sunday.
Canadian National, owner of the railways north of the border, has confirmed the extension of maintenance work by the country’s largest railway.
No statement about the discontinued route has been posted on either organization’s sites.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR)
#Canada
