AMTRAK was forced to withdraw its fleet of Horizon passenger coaches on March 26 following the discovery during routine maintenance of corrosion on several vehicles. As a result, Amtrak replaced trains with buses on the Downeaster, Hiawatha, Borealis and Cascades routes.
The Cascades route linking Vancouver, Canada, Seattle, Portland and Eugene in the Pacific Northwest and the Chicago - Milwaukee Hiawatha route were the worst affected with all but one of the seven daily round trips replaced by buses on the Cascades route and half of the trains on Hiawatha route until further notice.
The round trips on the daily Borealis service linking Chicago and St Paul were replaced by buses on March 26, as was the eastbound service on March 27. Amtrak was able to operate the full service from March 28 onwards.
Business class passengers are being refunded the cost difference from coach class, as the buses do not have business class.
Amtrak says it is examining how to replace its Horizon coaches by redistributing other vehicles in its national fleet.
Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) supplied the Horizon fleet comprising 86 coaches and 18 café cars between 1988 and 1990. The coaches have steel underframes and aluminium bodyshells.
