Amtrak is restoring daily Empire Builder service for the full route between Chicago and Seattle/Portland effective this week. The BNSF Railway Co. has made repairs to tracks closed due to recent flooding in North Dakota.

Starting with the eastbound departures of Train 8 from Seattle and Train 28 from Portland, Ore., on Sunday, July 17, the Amtrak Empire Builder will return service to missed stops in eastern Montana, North Dakota and western Minnesota. The westbound Amtrak Empire Builder Trains 7/27 will resume service to the full route effective with the departure from Chicago on Monday, July 18.

However, the station and the boarding platform at Minot, N.D., were both damaged in the flooding and remain closed. Amtrak service at Minot cannot resume until repairs are made sometime next month.

“We appreciate the patience of our customers and the work being done by Amtrak and BNSF employees to restore service,” said Daryl Pesce, the Chicago-based Amtrak General Superintendent. “Amtrak and the predecessors of BNSF have together operated the Empire Builder since 1929 and no one can recall as much flooding and disruption on the route in these 82 years.”