Part 1/16:
The State of Amtrak in 2025: Progress Amid Challenges and Subtle Wins
On the morning of Thursday, August 28th, 2025, Amtrak’s train 2154 departed from Washington D.C.’s Union Station at 6:50 a.m., heading northbound as it does every weekday. However, rather than a smooth, punctual journey, the train quickly encountered problems, marking a series of issues that would characterize its trip. By its first stop, the train was already 13 minutes behind schedule, with some cars experiencing malfunctioning automated doors that staff had to manually operate. As delays snowballed—reaching a 35-minute lag leaving D.C., then 44 minutes at subsequent stops—the train finally arrived in Boston nearly an hour late.