By Beacon Staff
Daily Amtrak trains going through Burlington are about to become a lot less frequent.
Amtrak service to Burlington and all long-distance trains, save for one, will be reduced to three days a week beginning on Oct. 1.
Amtrak Public Relations Manager Kimberly Woods confirmed the cut in service to The Beacon on Wednesday (June 17). The Washington Post originally broke the story earlier this week, citing an employee memo that was distributed on Monday, June 15.
Woods told The Beacon that the reduction in service will not be permanent. Trains to Burlington will continue to run daily until Oct. 1
“Our goal is to restore daily service on these routes as demand warrants, potentially by the summer of 2021,” she said.
Though Woods would not mention Burlington specifically when asked, the cut does include the California Zephyr corridor, which includes Burlington. As many as 461 stations will be affected, according to Jim Mathews, president and chief executive of the Rail Passengers Association.
Mayor Jon Billups said the city has yet to receive official word from Amtrak regarding the cut, but he wasn’t surprised.
“We’ve been hearing rumblings for a while,” he said. “It’s disappointing, but I understand.”
Though long-distance rail traffic demand is down by 70 percent, it is still faring better than overall ridership, which is down 90 percent. Long-distance routes saw the smallest declines in ridership during the pandemic.
“My family rides the train a lot, and it’s an important piece of transportation for our area,” Billups said.
The long-distance service, which includes 15 routes, is Amtrak’s least profitable and is dependent on government subsidies. Mathews railed against the decision in a statement after the news broke.
“The long-distance services declined the least among Amtrak’s three business lines during the coronavirus-induced slowdown, and its services remain essential to the hundreds of small communities across the United States with fewer options than Philadelphia or Boston or New York City,” he said.
The reduction also includes a 20 percent cut in staffing. The Burlington Depot does not have Amtrak staff, and the Friends of the Depot, a volunteer group that worked with Amtrak to improve the depot, disbanded earlier this year.
“As a first step, we are offering employees a voluntary incentive package,” Woods said.
At the height of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Amtrak ridership was down by 95 percent. The company said last month that it needs nearly $1.5 billion in supplemental funding from the federal government to maintain “minimum service levels,” anticipating ridership will not recover to pre-pandemic levels in fiscal 2021. Even with the supplemental funding, the company said, it would need to cut service and personnel to stay afloat.
Amtrak estimates that ridership in the next fiscal year may drop to 16 million, or roughly 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
“Congress is not going to support us indefinitely to run mostly empty trains,” Roger Harris, Amtrak’s executive vice president and chief marketing and revenue officer, said in the memo to employees. “We need to demonstrate that we are using our resources efficiently and responsibly.”
The Auto Train, which travels from the Washington suburbs of Lorton, Va., to the Orlando area, is the only long-distance route that will continue to operate daily, Amtrak said.
The following routes will go from daily operations to three times a week: California Zephyr (Chicago to San Francisco), Capitol Limited (Washington to Chicago), City of New Orleans (Chicago to New Orleans), Coast Starlight (Seattle to Los Angeles), Crescent (New York City to New Orleans), Empire Builder (Chicago to Seattle), Lake Shore Limited (New York to Chicago), Palmetto (New York to Savannah, Ga.), Silver Star (New York to Miami), Southwest Chief (Chicago to Los Angeles) and Texas Eagle (Chicago to San Antonio).
Photo: The Burlington Train Depot is shown.