Amtrak working to ‘quickly restore canceled trains’

Metra and Amtrak began restoring canceled trains Thursday morning, hours after the White House announced a tentative railway labor agreement had been reached that averted the possibility of a freight railroad strike the following day.

The news was met with relief by commuters at Chicago’s Ogilvie Transportation Center. The commuter rail terminal serves Metra’s Union Pacific North, Northwest and West lines, which, along with Metra’s BNSF line, were set to be canceled if a work stoppage occurred.

But Thursday morning, Metra said trains on the BNSF and Union Pacific lines that had been canceled would run as scheduled.

Amtrak also said it was “working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures.” The passenger train service had previously canceled all long-distance routes and, beginning Thursday night, some local service, including local routes between Chicago and downstate Illinois,

St. Louis and cities in Michigan.

The local service would run as scheduled Thursday night, and all long-distance service would return to normal operations Friday, spokesman Marc Magliari said.

Under federal law, a freight railroad strike or lockout could have begun as soon as Friday, shutting down rail lines across the country and halting shipments of food, fuel and goods. But railroad and union representatives spent 20 hours in negotiations at the Labor Department Wednesday hammering out a tentative agreement that will go to union members for a vote.

The effects of the potential work stoppage had already begun to ripple out to passenger and commuter rail before the deal was reached. Nearly all Amtrak routes outside the Northeast U.S. run on track that is owned, maintained and dispatched by freight railroads, and the passenger rail service had begun canceling routes to avoid disruption.