(The Associated Press circulated the following article on February 5.)
ALBANY, N.Y. – Amtrak has suspended passenger train service Monday in upstate New York west of Albany through today due to severe cold and heavy snow.
All Empire Service trains west of Albany, including Utica, Syracuse, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Toronto and intermediate stops, is canceled. Amtrak plans to arrange bus service in lieu of the canceled Empire Service trains.
The daily Chicago to New York City Lake Shore Limited train has also been canceled between Chicago and Albany.
Numerous schools are closed Monday in southwestern and northern New York areas buried by lake-effect snowfall.
Heavy, blowing snow Sunday shut down a 38-mile stretch of the state Thruway south of Buffalo. Visibility was near zero and trucks were jackknifing.
Wind chill advisories are posted today across upstate New York, with blustery wind making temperatures feel like 20 below at times.
Some towns south of Buffalo reported two to three feet of snow by Sunday evening. In northern New York, 24 inches of snow was measured in Watertown.
The National Weather Service said there was the potential for three to four feet of new snow in the Tug Hill region by today.
Syracuse and vicinity appears to be getting heavy lake effect snow as I write this. The same band dumped over 3 feet of the white stuff on Watertown and environs on Saturday and Sunday.
Some suggested in the other thread on weather and trains that in the “good old days” the trains always got through in spite of the weather. Talk about somebody who just fell off the turnip truck. Start with the fact that CSX owns and is responsible for keeping the track cleared. They will get the plows out when they are good and ready. Meanwhile, turning an Amtrak train loose when there is a good chance that it may get stranded is a very good way for the Amtrak VP in charge of such things finding himself out of a job somewhere about 3 in the afternoon.
This is interesting considering that Amtrak’s California Zephyr was still able to getinto and out of Denver during the blizzards at Christmas, albeit late. Were the weather conditions between the storms in Colorado and Upstate New York that different that Amtrak had to could operate into and out of Denver, but it had to cancel service in New York?