New York City - Amtrak Empire New York City to Albany Suspended 1/24 due to the cold

Notification issued 1/24/11 at 12:00 PM. Amtraks Empire Service between New York City and Albany is temporarily suspended due to cold temperatures. Amtraks long distance trains, The Adirondack, Ethan Allen Express, Lake Shore Limited and Maple Leaf are scheduled to operate normally. Passengers are encouraged to call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com for train status updates.

Interesting - the Hudson line of the Metro North appears to be operating normally. Is it much colder near Albany?

The New Haven line was a disaster this morning, but that was because they don't have near enough trains that are working, not the rails themselves. The M2 cars can no longer handle the cold.

When it gets cold (Weatherbug says it went to minus 15 last night in Albany) the rails contract and don't meet up with each other, and can cause problems in that a train can jump off the track, and the switches don't open and close as they should. I'm guessing they have lots more people with crowbars along the Metro North lines to force the switches into position then along the open spaces up there.

They are reporting

Amtrak spokesperson Cliff Cole said frozen pieces of equipment and parts of the track prompted the rail service to cancel all of its trains running between Albany and New York City beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Oddly enough, trains are still running to the north and west of Albany (Adirondack, Lake Shore Ltd) and the temps in those areas were much, much colder: -30 in Glens Falls, -25 near Utica...

They have added another train or two

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am/Layout&cid=1237608335997

Ethan Allen Express (New York to Rutland, VT) is also cancelled today