Amtrak workers are not involved in the labour dispute, but the railroad operates almost all of its 33,800km outside the US Northeast Corridor on tracks owned, maintained and dispatched by freight railroads.

Railroads including Union Pacific, Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF and Norfolk Southern have until a minute after midnight on Friday to reach tentative deals with three holdout unions representing about 60,000 workers before a work stoppage affecting freight and Amtrak could begin.

Amtrak made its announcement on Wednesday after earlier in the week deciding to cancel 10 long-distance trains ahead of the Friday deadline.

The latest trains to be cancelled starting on Thursday are: the Auto Train (Washington to Sanford, Florida); Capitol Limited (Washington to Pittsburgh); Cardinal (Washington to Chicago); and the Palmetto (south of Washington to Savannah, Georgia).

Some commuter train systems, such as Chicago’s Metra, have also said they will be forced to begin cutting service on Thursday. Minnesota’s Northstar Commuter Rail, operated under contract by Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF, which serves the Minneapolis area, said its service could be suspended as early as Friday.