Signal issue halts Tri-Rail, Amtrak, CSX freight train services

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A system outage halted all Tri-Rail, Amtrak and CSX freight train service in South Florida, the passenger train service said Tuesday night.

Service halted around 3:30 p.m. for the tracks that run west of Interstate 95.

Tri-Rail said in a news release the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority staff "has been working on identifying the cause and viable solutions to get the system back up and running."

A spokesman for Tri-Rail announced after midnight that normal service would resume Wednesday.

Tri-Rail was coordinating a bus system to transport passengers from station to station. This is what was done during the nightly commute with "major delays," according to Tri-Rail.

"Basically, the dispatch system we use to move our trains is down, so we cannot run trains on the entire corridor," Victor Garcia, director of public affairs for Tri-Rail, said in an email to WPTV. "This affects all trains, including Amtrak and CSX freight. We’ll have a better technical explanation when we identify the problem."

Tri-Rail has a tracker to monitor service that covers 73.5 miles from Mami-Dade County to Palm Beach County.

Passengers also are encouraged to visit www.tri-rail.com [tri-rail.com], sign up for VIP Alerts, follow Tri-Rail’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or call 1-800-TRI-RAIL (874-7245) between 5 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, for information on service updates.

There are 18 stations with 50 trains running from 4 a.m. to 11:35 p.m. on weekdays and 30 on weekends/holidays 5:17 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

The weekday average ridership is 6,500 with 15,000 before the coronavirus pandemic.

The active fleet includes nine train sets.

Amtrak runs two trains each day through West Palm: northbound Silver Meteor at 9:05 p.m. and the Silver Star 10:45 a.m., with southbound Silver Star at 4:13 p.m. and Silver Meteor at 4:54 p.m.