Passenger Trains > Lake Shore Limited - Boston Section

Is today, May 5, 2025 one of those days/weeks where the Boston section 449/448 is not operating? I see coach seats for sale, but sleepers “sold out” till Albany….and at 2:30 pm eastern time the train status says “delayed in Boston due to servicing of equipment” for westbound train 449!!! Just curious what the work window is?

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Work by CSX on the B&A wrapped up on May 1st per Amtrak.  449 is estimatted to leave Boston about 2 hours late , several NER trains this morning/noon  are showing 1.5 to 2 hour delays out of Boston.  The Amtrak trains that turn at South Station seem to be on time. 

Pretty sure work is not yet wrapped up.  I was booked on 449 from Springfield on May 29, "was" being the operative word.  I got a text today saying that my trip was CANCELED (yes, it was all caps) and that I might be able to rebook by clicking some link, that did not work.  My last planned trip went this way, too, and I just straight up canceled.  Then they added the bus and wanted to rebook me.  I flew.  I will wait this time and see what they do as my travel date gets closer.

Sometimes I wonder why we try to ride Amtrak.  They don't make it easy.

mvrr10 Wrote:
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> Work by CSX on the B&A wrapped up on May 1st per
> Amtrak.  449 is estimatted to leave Boston about
> 2 hours late , several NER trains this
> morning/noon  are showing 1.5 to 2 hour delays
> out of Boston.  The Amtrak trains that turn at
> South Station seem to be on time. 

449 departed Boston at 348p , 2'58'' late ;  49 out of NYP at 340p on time .

I tried the "rebook" link that Amtrak sent me in the cancellation email.  This is what I got:

"We are unable to retrieve your reservation at this time. For assistance please call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245)"

You know, I could go down to DC and try the Floridian...I am serious.  Might be an adventure.  Amtrak even gives me the option of Regional 125 from Springfield, with a 55 minute connection to 40 at DC.  It appears to be a guaranteed connection.

Go figure.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/25 16:24 by Chessie1963.

CSX & many other major railroads should be "rebooted" for closing their railroads for weeks at a time for "maintenance."   Amtrak should demand that such maintenance goes on when no passenger trains are scheduled.  For the B & A (NYC) the time for maintenance should from 4 a.m. - Noon.  Then both the eb & wb Lake Shore Ltd. would not be impacted.  

NS, UP and other railroads pull the same crap.  They usually have many hours when there are NO passenger trains over their railroad.  

Demand? What, realistically, is Amtrak's leverage?
It does seem odd to me that certain lines seem to have heavy maintenance issues every year, and many others you never hear a word about. I may be unaware, but I have never heard a peep about maintenance outages on the NS between Chicago and Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, same on CSX between Pittsburgh and DC.

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CSX & many other major railroads should be
> "rebooted" for closing their railroads for weeks
> at a time for "maintenance."   Amtrak should
> demand that such maintenance goes on when no
> passenger trains are scheduled.  For the B & A
> (NYC) the time for maintenance should from 4 a.m.
> - Noon.  Then both the eb & wb Lake Shore Ltd.
> would not be impacted.  
>
> NS, UP and other railroads pull the same crap. 
> They usually have many hours when there are NO
> passenger trains over their railroad.  

Westbound train #49 sitting in Albany, at 8:24 pm, waiting for a 3 hour plus late #449 from Boston. So it îs operating and #448 operated today Albany to Boston. What struck me aș odd is that the Boston sleeper was fully booked leaving Boston today, May 5th, so I thought it was still a bus till Albany. Train #49 is also heavily booked with sleeper car pase gets, but apparently there are "sleeper rooms" available west of Albany. Who knows! Lots of local traffic will not book sleeper rooms as there's no "D" or "R" stations (Discharge only and Receive only) that had been the case in the past! We'll see what comes in at Elkhart, IN tomorrow, May 6 for #49 and #449. Happy travels to all. Glad the demand seems strong, despite the lateness of Amtrak trăins!

This time of the year, and for the next couple of months, it is pretty light by 5-530 am here in New England.  You raise an interesting point.

This seems to be outside of the norm.  I am going to sit tight and see what they do.  I am returning to Springfiled from Chicago, so that has to be my origin.  I am going to count on Amtrak to get it done.  The bummer is that the scenery from what I expect to be a bus is not nearly as good as it is on the train.

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CSX & many other major railroads should be
> "rebooted" for closing their railroads for weeks
> at a time for "maintenance."   Amtrak should
> demand that such maintenance goes on when no
> passenger trains are scheduled.  For the B & A
> (NYC) the time for maintenance should from 4 a.m.
> - Noon.  Then both the eb & wb Lake Shore Ltd.
> would not be impacted.  
>
> NS, UP and other railroads pull the same crap. 
> They usually have many hours when there are NO
> passenger trains over their railroad.  

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty sure work is not yet wrapped up.  I was
> booked on 449 from Springfield on May 29, "was"
> being the operative word.  I got a text today
> saying that my trip was CANCELED (yes, it was all
> caps) and that I might be able to rebook by
> clicking some link, that did not work.  My last
> planned trip went this way, too, and I just
> straight up canceled.  Then they added the bus
> and wanted to rebook me.  I flew.  I will wait
> this time and see what they do as my travel date
> gets closer.
>
> Sometimes I wonder why we try to ride Amtrak.
>  They don't make it easy.
>

If you call the number in the e-mail it goes right through to a special rebooking agent. Normally you want to call immediately so one has a sleeper room ALB-CHI to rebook to.  A Bus leg from Springfield to Albany isn't even that bad given how much slower the B&A is. Amtrak's rebooking system isn't perfect, but that's usually in odd corner cases where the computer allows only one change.

Thanks.  I will give them a call.

Normal running consist for the Lake Shore Limited #49/449 (5). Just three hours late out of Boston and it held up the NY section at Albany so dashing across the Midwest just shy of three hours late. Appears they also added a third P42 at Albany to forward on to Chicago. The NY and Boston based sleepers have a high load factor! 

               WHY do people continue demand to get lousey service in this mess and beg for more failures as they go along ordering and hopefully paying for what they knoew very well is going to piss them off. How far into this do they normal go before acting on the sentence " never again ".   Such a simple decision to make after taking it up the fruit of the undershorts so many times.
               My wife still wants to take another train trip but I could not drag her sceaming to a depot nor out the other door to board the wicked Amtrak,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/25 12:04 by dcfbalcoS1.

449/49 of the 5th of May arrived in Chicago today at 1225p ; 2'13''. late

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>                WHY do people continue
> demand to get lousey service in this mess and beg
> for more failures as they go along ordering and
> hopefully paying for what they knoew very well is
> going to piss them off. How far into this do they
> normal go before acting on the sentence " never
> again ".   Such a simple decision to make after
> taking it up the fruit of the undershorts so many
> times.
>                My wife still wants to take
> another train trip but I could not drag her
> sceaming to a depot nor out the other door to
> board the wicked Amtrak,

You are aware this is a rail enthusiasts forum right? Ok, Amtrak runs the risk of being late. I'm just getting more train time for my buck. I'm on today's Train 19 to Atlanta. I've got nothing scheduled to do that day so the train could be a catestrophic 8 hours late and I'd still be fine. Meanwhile, my friend that gives me crap for taking the train booked tickets next Monday to save $ which gets us in 8+ hours after Sunday's 20 would have arrived.