Daily Amtrak Service To Spokane Delayed

Resumption of daily service on the Empire Builder, Amtrak’s passenger train service between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Seattle, has been derailed indefinitely.

Amtrak announced Thursday it would have to continue four-times-a-week service “due to a shortage of available passenger cars, crews and funding because of the continued operation of services that had been scheduled to be discontinued.”

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said a change in the 1997 budget “tied Amtrak’s hands and blocked the passenger railroad’s ability to restore daily service along the Empire Builder by the previously announced Nov. 10 date.”

Initially, Amtrak proposed and its board approved restoring daily service by cutting or eliminating service on a number of Amtrak’s other routes. But lawmakers from affected states added $22.5 million to Amtrak’s budget to continue the four routes during a temporary six-month period of transition.