The announcement was made as the rail freight industry and two key unions remained at an impasse in contract negotiations. A federally mandated 30-day ‘cooling off’ period ends at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, opening a door to strikes and lockouts. Amtrak said the negotiations do not involve its employees.

Amtrak noted that outside the Northeast Corridor, which connects Boston, New York and Washington, most of its service runs on ‘track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads.’ As a result, it said, only trains that can reach their final destination by the Friday deadline were continuing to operate.

It said most travel in the Northeast Corridor and on related branch lines to Albany, N.Y.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Springfield, Mass., would not be affected, since those rails are controlled by Amtrak.

What Amtrak called “phased adjustments” to its schedule began with service suspensions on Tuesday on some of its longest routes, including the Southwest Chief between Los Angeles and Chicago, and the California Zephyr between Chicago and San Francisco.”

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