U.S. rail strike averted. What 11th-hour call did to Amtrak service in the San Joaquin Valley

Tim Sheehan
Fresno Bee file photo

UPDATE - Thursday, Sept. 15: A tentative agreement between major U.S. freight railroads and their labor unions has largely averted a shutdown Thursday of Amtrak’s passenger train service through Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley.

But the agreement came too late for the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, which operates the Amtrak San Joaquin trains between Bakersfield, Stockton, Oakland and Sacramento, to avoid suspension of two of its 12 daily trains on Thursday.

Because of the uncertainty of negotiations on Wednesday evening, the two trains not running on Thursday were:

Train 702, southbound leaving Sacramento at 6:26 a.m. to Bakersfield at 11:57 a.m. Train 703, northbound leaving Bakersfield at 2:55 p.m. to Sacramento at 11:35 p.m.

“Because a deal was not reached by 5:00 p.m. Wednesday September 14, SJJPA was required to begin suspending strategic portions of its service for the following Thursday (Sept. 15),” the Stockton-based agency said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. The authority was concerned that passengers and trains ran the risk of being caught in the middle of their routes if an agreement had not been reached.

“With assurance that a work stoppage has been averted, SJJPA is confident that the there will not be a lapse in personnel, including freight dispatchers and other service people that work to keep the host railroads operational and safe,” the authority said. “Therefore, SJJPA plans to resume normal service beginning Friday, September 16, 2022.”

Amtrak’s San Joaquin trains run on tracks operated by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railway. Had a contract agreement between railroad labor unions and those two railroads, as well as other freight railroads across the country, a strike could have commenced as early as 12:01 a.m. Friday.

“Our agency is extremely pleased to hear the news that a tentative agreement has been reached between freight railroad carriers and all of their respective employee unions,” SJJPA executive director Stacey Mortensen said Thursday. “As we promised to restore service as quickly as possible, we are happy to report that we are able to restore nearly all of the planned suspended service” for Thursday.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Amtrak’s San Joaquins faced the threat of disruption because of the prospect of a rail strike. The San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority announced Wednesday afternoon that it would suspend six of its daily passenger trains, as well as its connecting bus services, starting on Thursday because of what was then an ongoing impasse in labor negotiations between BNSF Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad and workers’ labor unions.

Major railroads were trying to reach an agreement with all of their labor unions to avert a strike before Friday’s deadline. The unions weren’t allowed to strike before Friday under the federal law that governs railroad contract talks. In addition to BNSF and Union Pacific, other railroads involved in the negotiations are Norfolk Southern, CSX, Kansas City Southern and the U.S. operations of Canadian National.

A cooling-off period under the Railway Labor Act was to expire at 12:01 a.m. Friday. All scheduled Amtrak San Joaquin trains and bus services would be suspended starting Friday in the event of a freight rail strike.

The San Joaquin route is the sixth-busiest Amtrak service in the U.S. with 1.1 million passengers and serving 18 stations between Bakersfield, Stockton, Sacramento and Oakland.

While the Amtrak trains are a passenger service and do not carry freight, its trains on the San Joaquin Line operate on tracks that are operated by the freight railroads and would be unable to run if there is a work stoppage by freight railroad employees.

The Amtrak San Joaquin trains that were to have been suspended Thursday ahead of a potential strike were:

  • Train 702, southbound leaving Sacramento at 6:26 a.m. to Bakersfield at 11:57 a.m.

  • Train 703, northbound leaving Bakersfield at 2:55 p.m. to Sacramento at 11:35 p.m.

  • Train 714, southbound leaving Oakland at 11:36 a.m. to Bakersfield at 5:57 p.m.

  • Train 717, northbound leaving Bakersfield at 2:12 p.m. to Oakland at 8:31 p.m.

  • Train 718, southbound leaving Oakland at 5:36 p.m. to Bakersfield at 11:57 p.m.

  • Train 719, northbound from Bakersfield at 4:12 p.m. to Oakland at 10:30 p.m.

Connecting Amtrak bus services including Bakersfield/Los Angeles, Stockton/Sacramento, Visalia/Hanford/San Luis Obispo/Santa Maria and others would also have be suspended during a freight rail labor stoppage.

Six additional trains – three northbound and three southbound – and their bus connections would have been suspended starting Friday until further notice in the event of a strike.

Between Bakersfield and Stockton, Amtrak’s trains operate on BNSF Railway tracks. The one daily northbound and one daily southbound train between Sacramento and Stockton use Union Pacific Railroad tracks. The Amtrak trains that head west to the Bay Area run on BNSF tracks between Stockton and Port Chicago and then switch over to Union Pacific tracks to Oakland.

There are 12 unions — one with two separate divisions — representing 115,000 workers nationwide that must agree to deals and have their members vote on approval.

The prospect of a nationwide rail strike had government officials and a variety of businesses bracing for the possibility of paralyzed train shipments of everything from crude and clothing to cars, a potential calamity for businesses that have struggled for more than two years due to COVID-19 related supply chain breakdowns.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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