Tropical Weather on Train Travel

[Carolina2001]

My First Amtrak trip is next week. Question about weather. It I s 5-6 days away and a lot can and will change. But out of curiosity what impact does tropical weather have on Amtrak ? I’m traveling on SilverStar next Monday/Tuesday. I should arrive in Florida about the same time as Elsa, the current tropical storm but could be hurricane arrives. How does that impact travel on Amtrak? Do they cancel? Delay at a station until storm passes? I am Trying to get a plan B in place if needed

 

[Brian Battuello]

Amtrak has been known to cancel in very severe weather, but it really depends on how much flooding is occurring. Just keep an eye on it and watch for service alerts:

https://www.amtrak.com/service-alerts-and-notices
It is unlikely that they would make any decision more than a day in advance.

 

[jis]

My First Amtrak trip is next week. Question about weather. It I s 5-6 days away and a lot can and will change. But out of curiosity what impact does tropical weather have on Amtrak ? I’m traveling on SilverStar next Monday/Tuesday. I should arrive in Florida about the same time as Elsa, the current tropical storm but could be hurricane arrives. How does that impact travel on Amtrak? Do they cancel? Delay at a station until storm passes? I am Trying to get a plan B in place if needed

If it is a low to middling Tropical Storm probably there will be little effect. If it is a Hurricane running up the peninsula, it is very likely that all service south of Jacksonville will be canceled. Elsa currently is projected to be in the vicinity of Central Florida or out on the Gulf with a higher probability with a slight chance of it being on the Atlantic in 6 days from today, so you might sneak through on Tuesday.

Usually it is hard to take projections too seriously until one is within the three day cone.

Here is the current (July 1 11am EDT) NHC projection:


Here is the current model track guidance that NHC uses to produce their cone. The dark black line marked OFCL is the NHC projected track. Each track is identified by the name of the model and the little numbers next to them are the number of hours from 12Z (8am EDT) of July 1, at that point.

 

[Carolina2001]

So what happens if I’m already on the train and they cancel. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a severe hurricane. Maybe cat 1. I just got back from camping ocean front in tropical storm Claudette so the weather doesn’t bother me. Been in many tropical systems where I live. I just don’t want to be stranded at a train station

 

[Brian Battuello]

Being stranded at a train station is just part of the fun with Amtrak. Same as with airports. No point in worrying about anything 5-6 days away. Just keep an eye on it.

 

[Chatter163]

So what happens if I’m already on the train and they cancel. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a severe hurricane. Maybe cat 1. I just got back from camping ocean front in tropical storm Claudette so the weather doesn’t bother me. Been in many tropical systems where I live. I just don’t want to be stranded at a train station

You won’t. They won’t stop a train mid route, when a hurricane is still a day or two away. They cancel scheduled trains at that point.