Norfolk Southern technology outage causes rail disruption, Amtrak delays

Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern said a technology outage Monday that disrupted rail operations is expected to have an impact for “at least a couple of weeks.”

The outage disrupted Norfolk Southern’s rail network, and also caused delays and cancellations for other trains that use Norfolk Southern tracks.

A number of Amtrak trains in Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and other parts of the country were delayed and canceled Monday and Tuesday “due to signal issues on the host railroad” and similar issues, according to Amtrak.

Other trains, including Virginia Railway Express Manassas Line trains, were also canceled Monday because of the Norfolk Southern system outage.

Norfolk Southern said late Monday evening it was bringing its rail network back online after restoring systems from the “hardware-related technology outage” by 7 p.m., and was in contact with customers on updated timing for their shipments. “We expect the impact to our operations to last at least a couple of weeks,” according to Norfolk Southern, which is investigating the root cause of the issues.

“At this time, we have no indication that this was a cybersecurity incident,” Norfolk Southern said in a written statement.

About the Author

Business reporter Kelly Yamanouchi covers airlines and the airport including Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, one of the world's largest carriers, and Hartsfield-Jackson, the world's busiest airport. She has covered airlines for about 20 years, graduated from Harvard and has a master's degree from Northwestern.

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