By Justin Franz 

WASHINGTON — With the deadline to prevent a national railroad strike or lockout just over 24 hours away, Amtrak announced late Wednesday that it would be canceling some state-supported passenger services starting Thursday evening. The news comes hours after Amtrak announced that all of its long-distance trains were canceled starting Thursday. 

Among the state-supported services that will be canceled are Capitol Corridor, Amtrak Cascades, Heartland Flyer, Illinois Service, Michigan Service, Pacific Surfliner (partial), Piedmont, San Joaquins, Springfield, Mass., Service (north of Springfield), and Virginia Service.

Most travel within the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor (Boston – New York – Washington) would not be affected: Acela would operate a full schedule, and only a small number of Northeast Regional departures would be impacted.  In addition, Empire Service between New York and Albany; Keystone Service between New York and Harrisburg; the Amtrak Hartford Line between New Haven and Springfield, Mass., and the Downeaster between Boston and Brunswick, Maine, will operate as scheduled.

That last one, the Downeaster, is notable because it operates on CSX Transportation tracks, one of the railroads currently trying to hammer out a labor contract. Because the Downeaster operates on former Pan Am Railways track and those employees already have a contract, operations on that part of CSX are not expected to be halted should there be a strike. 

The deadline for a deal is 12:01 a.m. Friday.