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Empire Builder to resume regular schedule in January

With 2014 work on BNSF Railway tracks wrapping up, the national rail transportation service plans to get its Hi-Line trains back on schedule.

Amtrak announced that The Empire Builder that runs from Chicago to Seattle and Portland, Ore., will resume its regular schedule Jan. 12.

The Amtrak release says the change — and regularly busing passengers through portions of North Dakota — were implemented to allow for work on track expansion along the route.

BNSF, which owns the tracks on which The Empire Builder runs, invested more than $5 billion in improvements this year, with some $1 billion of that on the northern tier and $140 million in Montana.

BNSF spokesman Matt Jones said the railway shipped record amounts of wheat, corn and soybeans from Montana, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota and set company records in October and November for the amount of freight shipped to the Pacific Northwest.

He said 2015 will be the third straight year BNSF will make record investments in improvements, with plans to spend $6 billion nationwide.

To account for congestion and work on the tracks, Amtrak changed the Empire Builder schedule April 15, with the eastbound train scheduled to hit Havre three hours earlier, about 10 a.m., and the westbound arriving an hour later, about 3:30 p.m.

 

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