click to enlarge - File: Luke Awtry
- An Amtrak train in Burlington
Amtrak’s Adirondack line, which runs between New York City and Montréal daily, will terminate in Albany, N.Y., “until further notice” because of track issues in Québec, according to an Amtrak official.
The train route across the Canadian border
only reopened in April after a three-year, pandemic-related shutdown. Heading northbound after Albany, the Adirondack typically stops in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs, Fort Edward-Glens Falls, Whitehall, Ticonderoga, Port Henry, Westport, Plattsburgh and Rouses Point. The train would then stop at the border with Québec, where Canadian agents would check travelers’ passports before the train continued on to Montréal’s Central Station.
In Canada, Amtrak runs on track owned by Canadian National Railway, which “has implemented reduced speed regulations due to heat,” forcing Amtrak to truncate the Adirondack line, according to Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams.
Canadian National did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But in a press release, the North Country Chamber of Commerce, based in Plattsburgh, said Canadian National is limiting trains to 10 miles per hour whenever temperatures exceed 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
"It's almost as if there's a conspiracy to interfere with the long awaited renewal of cross border travel now that we have things flowing again," the chamber's president, Garry Douglas, said in a written statement.
The Adirondack is the only option for Vermonters hoping to travel to Québec by rail. Officials are working to extend the Vermonter line, which currently ends in St. Albans, to Montréal, but the project is years off from completion.