By Railfan & Railroad Staff

Winter weather and extreme cold temperatures across much of the northern part of the nation this week forced the cancelation of a number of long-distance and state-supported Amtrak trains.

Perhaps no route was impacted more than the Empire Builder, which hasn’t run since this past weekend. On Monday, Amtrak announced that it would not run until at least Thursday due to cold temperatures on the northern tier of the country. Much of the Builder’s route is over BNSF Railway trackage and the Class I was warning customers to expect delays due to the extreme cold. Other long-distance routes that were being impacted included the Southwest Chief and California Zephyr. 

State-supported services that were being canceled early this week included the Illini, Pere Marquette, Carl Sandburg, River Runner, Lincoln, Quincy, Blue Water and Wolverine. Full details of what trains were running and which were not could be found online.