Amtrak service reduction draws criticism

Amtrak is once again scaling back services across the U.S. as the omicron-driven surge of COVID-19 in the U.S. continues, and this reduction in services has drawn some criticism.

Amtrak announced that, starting last week, Empire Builder trains will no longer be departing Chicago, Seattle and Portland on Thursdays and Fridays, meaning there will be no service in Montana Fridays or Saturdays, including to popular destinations like the Big Mountain ski hill.

Calls to Whitefish Mountain resort had not been returned by printing deadline this morning.

The service reduction to the Empire Builder, which also affects the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Texas Eagle, Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited and City of New Orleans routes, is in effect through March 27.

Service reductions are in place in other parts of the country as well.

Amtrak has said the primary reason for this reduction is due to staffing, which COVID-19 has wrecked havoc on, especially now that the U.S.'s case load is dominated by the omicron variant, which is far more contagious than previous variants.

An Amtrak release addressing the issue said the company has been making substantial efforts to get its staff vaccinated and tested, but the impact of the virus on their employees has been massive regardless.

"Despite Amtrak's rigorous vaccination and testing program, several hundred of our on-board service personnel, conductors, engineers and mechanical crews continue to be impacted by COVID infections or exposures, particularly given the highly infectious nature of the new variant and the prevalence of breakthrough cases," Amtrak said in the release.

This reduction in services comes on top of other cuts that include the suspension of 8 percent of Northeast Regional weekly departures, suspension of 6 percent of state-supported weekly departures, and suspension of Silver Meteor daily service to be offset by a corresponding increase in capacity, as dictated by demand, on the Silver Star and Palmetto routes serving nearly all the destinations served by the Silver Meteor.

This isn't the first reduction in services Amtrak has had to make during the pandemic. Long-distance routes were cut early in the pandemic as the national passenger rail service cited declining passenger numbers due to COVID-19, but seven-day-a-week service resumed in May after Congress appropriated funds specifically to restore service and directed Amtrak to return furloughed workers to their jobs.

The release regarding current service reductions says customers with existing reservation are being reaccomodated and the service is continuing to monitor conditions to make adjustments as needed, but the reduction in services has still drawn some criticism for its execution, even among those that agree it may be necessary.

Mark Meyer, a one-time resident of Cut Bank and Havre and a longtime rail passenger service advocate, said Amtrak appears to be using a cookie-cutter approach to its reductions instead of dealing with the problems route by route, which is a problem.

"During the ongoing COVID situation, a number of businesses are cutting back on service, and Amtrak should not necessarily be an exception," Meyer said. "However, the Amtrak cutbacks seem to be uniform in nature rather than specific to the route. Except for two routes already operating only three days per week and the routes between the Northeast and Florida, all Amtrak long-distance trains now operate only five consecutive days per week."

He said having two consecutive days of no service creates a serious problem by creating as much a 72-hour gap between trains, and the choice of days made could be very disruptive for the Empire Builder.

"Less-than-daily service also restricts connections in Chicago and Portland as the Empire Builder often arrives in those cities on days which are one of the two 'off days' for other long-distance services, reducing days that connections are possible to as few as three," he said.

Meyer said this uniform reduction in services does a disservice to many communities along the train lines that rely on them as their only reasonable means of public transportation, describing it as an "insult to longstanding patrons who have made the Empire Builder (at least pre-COVID) Amtrak's consistently most-ridden long-distance train in the corporation's 50-year existence."

He also criticized the reductions from the perspective of employees, particularly on-board ones who may face some serous challenges with this new model.

"With two consecutive days without service, on-board and operating personnel face a long layover at away-from-home locations each week, or an expensive 'deadheading' (moving employees to or from an on-duty point when a daily crew rotation is no longer available) at the beginning or end of each five-day rotation," Meyer said.

A response from an Amtrak union representative to whom Havre Daily was referred had not been received by printing deadline this morning.

He also said the implementation of this plan and the complications it will cause will likely be more expensive than just sticking with a daily service and will result in less revenue due to severed connections.