Amtrak suspends West Coast train service — including stops in SLO and Paso Robles
UPDATE >> Railroad strike averted — Amtrak routes to SLO and Paso Robles will resume soon
Amtrak will suspend its West Coast train service starting starting on Thursday due to a potential nationwide freight line worker strike, affecting arrivals and departures in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles
Both the Coast Starlight line, which runs from Los Angeles to Seattle, and the Pacific Surfliner, which connects SLO and San Diego, have canceled scheduled trains in the coming days.
A search on Wedneday of the Coast Starlight’s booking website showed that Thursday’s northbound departure from SLO at 3:11 p.m. has been canceled. The southbound route scheduled to arrive here at 3:24 p.m. has been canceled as well. The website was still accepting bookings for Friday and beyond, but it’s unclear how those days will be affected by the potential strike.
The Pacific Surfliner site has a notice warning travelers about upcoming disruptions in service. Trains 794 from SLO to Los Angeles and 777 from SLO to Goleta have been canceled on Thursday, among other suspended service in Southern California. On Friday, the site says all train service between Moorpark and San Luis Obispo has been canceled.
The interruption in service is the result of a freight line worker strike with two unions, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), according to an Association of American Railroads news release.
The unions are negotiating “salary, benefits, time off, and work practices,” with each company, a news release from the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority said.
The labor negotiations do not involve Amtrak, but Amtrak runs its trains on tracks run by freight companies engaged with the unions — and Amtrak can’t operate when those companies are shut down.
If negotiations with the unions remain unsettled by Friday at 12:01 a.m., the news release said, the strike will go into effect, largely shutting down the train lines beyond the existing cancellations.
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 4:22 PM.
