Capitol Limited to Resume Daily Operation

Starting Monday, Amtrak’s Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited will begin sharing train sets with the Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle.

The move coincides with both trains resuming daily operation rather than the five-day-week operation they have been following since late January.

At that time the Capitol Limited began departing Chicago and Washington on Sunday through Thursday with no departures on Friday and Saturday.

At the time of the service reduction, Amtrak cited staffing shortages in reducing the operation of most long-distance trains from daily to five-days-a-week.

A report on the website of Trains magazine said the equipment from inbound No. 29 will make a same-day turn with minimal maintenance to become No. 21 for Texas.

Three days a week the Texas Eagle interchanges in San Antonio through cars to and from Los Angeles with the Sunset Limited.

Trains said the equipment sharing between the Eagle and Capitol will reduce the number of equipment sets needed to cover both trains from seven to six.

Currently, Amtrak assigns three equipment sets to Nos. 29 and 30 and four equipment sets to Nos. 21 and 22.

The trains will continue to be treated as separate for purposes of ticketing and those who are connecting from the Capitol to the Eagle or vice versa must disembark in Chicago rather than remain onboard.

The Eagle and Capitol have similar equipment sets of two coaches, a sleeping car and a Cross Country Café that serves as a dining car for sleeping car passengers and a café car for coach passengers.

The Eagle operates with a third coach between Chicago and St. Louis.

As part of the change, Amtrak plans to shift the federally-mandated 1,500 mile equipment inspection to St. Louis rather than Chicago.

To accommodate that, Amtrak is adding additional dwell time in St. Louis so that the Eagle will sit there for two hours in each direction.

During the St. Louis dwell time passengers will either have to disembark for the entire dwell time or remain in their coach seat or sleeping car room.

Amtrak wanted to retain the same schedule between St. Louis and San Antonio in both directions so it modified the schedule between Chicago and St. Louis.

No. 21 will now depart Chicago at 11:55 a.m. rather than the current 1:45 p.m. It will depart St. Louis at 9:22 a.m. and arrive in Chicago at 3:21 p.m. Currently, No. 22 departs St. Louis at 7:55 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 1:22 p.m.

Currently, the St. Louis dwell time for the Texas Eagle in both directions is 30 minutes.

A potential challenge for the new schedule can occur if the inbound Capitol Limited is excessively late arriving in Chicago.

It is common for No. 29 to lose time while operating over host railroad Norfolk Southern west of Toledo.

In addition to the Capitol Limited and Texas Eagle resuming daily operation, the Los Angeles-Seattle Coast Starlight will also begin operating daily next week.

Although Amtrak’s website shows all other long-distance trains now operating five days a week resuming daily operation on May 23, that is not guaranteed even though passengers are being allowed to book travel on days those trains currently do not operate.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told Railway Age that the daily operation shown on the website for all long distance trains effective March 23 is the carrier’s spring schedule and the summer schedule has yet to be posted.

Amtrak has thus far declined to say how long the less-than-daily operation will continue.

That means the Lake Shore Limited, Crescent, City of New Orleans, Southwest Chief, California Zephyr and Empire Builder will continue to operate on their present five-days-a-week schedules.

Also uncertain is when the New York-Miami Silver Meteor will resume operation.

Some corridor services will resume operating on March 28, including all trains in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor and some Empire Service trains that had been suspended between New York and Albany-Rensselaer, New York.

However, in the Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois, corridor the southbound Saluki and northbound Illini remain suspended.

The former departed Chicago in the morning while the latter departed Carbondale in late afternoon.

Some shuttle trains between New Haven, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, also remain suspended.

A few Northeast Corridor trains also have yet to return, including overnight Nos. 66 and 67 between Boston and Washington.

This is not the first time Amtrak has operated equipment sharing for long-distance trains in Chicago.

In past years the Capitol Limited has shared equipment with the Southwest Chief, the Texas Chief has shared equipment with the City of New Orleans, and the Empire Builder has shared equipment with the City of New Orleans.

Magliari told Railway Age that combining the equipment sets for the Capitol Limited and Texas Eagle was done due to shortages of operating and maintenance employees.

Another factor, he said, is that both are one-night trains, rather than taking two nights.

Shop Vacancies Driving Amtrak Service Cuts

The staff shortages that Amtrak cited when extending the suspension of some services beyond late March are most acute in the mechanical department, Trains magazine reported on its website.

Trains quoted Amtrak spokesman Marc Magilari as saying that as of the middle of February “vacancies in the mechanical department are acute.”

In late January, Amtrak reduced the frequency of operation of most long distance trains to five days a week with plans to restore those trains to daily operation starting March 28.

But only the Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited, Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle, and the Seattle-Los Angeles Coast Starlight will resume daily operation on that date.

Some Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha service and New York City-Albany/Rensselaer, New York Empire Corridor frequencies also will be reinstated.

But Northeast corridor and some state-supported corridor services that were curtailed in late January also will remain sidelined.

Trains said Magliari indicated that having fewer shop workers means many locomotives and passenger cars that were idled in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic service cuts that were even more severe than those imposed this year have yet to return to service.

This has led to delays and in some instances cancellations at originating terminals when equipment malfunctions and spares are not available.

 “There is a direct connection between our staffing levels and sizing of our consists,” Magliari told Trains. “We’ve said it will be many months before we will have full availability of the active fleet and that remains the case, including our own staffing challenges and those of our suppliers.”

The Trains report suggested that management decisions made during previous two years have aggravated a situation in which Amtrak is struggling to hire replacements for workers who were given buy outs or furloughed.

In the meantime trains are operating with shorter than normal consists and Amtrak has declined to say if or when idled Superliner Sightseer lounges and transition sleepers will return to the Capitol Limited or Texas Eagle.

The article can be read at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/continuing-amtrak-service-cuts-reflect-lack-of-national-network-investment-analysis/

Details Set for Amtrak Service Cancellations

Amtrak’s service cancellations of long-distance trains that take effect on Jan. 24 will mean that trains will not depart from their terminal of origin on consecutive days, Trains magazine reported on its website on Monday.

The cancellations, which extend through late March, were announced on Jan. 14. At the time Amtrak, cited employee shortages prompted largely by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in large numbers of workers being off work due to being sick or having to quarantine after being exposed to someone with COVID-19

The announcement said 8 percent of departures would be cancelled system wide and 6 percent of its state-supported network trains.

As it turned out in the Midwest the only trains to be affected will be one roundtrip between Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois, and several Hiawatha Service trips between Chicago and Milwaukee.

All trains in the Chicago-St. Louis; Chicago-Michigan; Chicago-Quincy, Illinois; and St. Louis-Kansas City corridors will continue operating daily as scheduled.

Canceled until March 27 in the Chicago-Carbondale corridor was the southbound Saluki and northbound Illini. The suspension of Nos. 391 and 392 became effective Jan. 18.

The days that long distance trains will cease operating starting Jan. 27 are staggered.

Among western long distance trains the Southwest Chief (Chicago-Los Angeles) will not depart on Monday and Tuesday. The California Zephyr (Chicago-Emeryville, California) will not depart on Sunday and Monday.

The Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle/Portland) will not depart on Thursday and Friday. The Texas Eagle (Chicago-San Antonio) will not depart on Wednesday and Thursday. The Coast Starlight (Seattle-Los Angeles) will not depart on Wednesday and Thursday).

Among eastern long distance trains, the Capitol Limited (Chicago-Washington) will not depart on Friday and Saturday. The Lake Shore Limited (Chicago-New York/Boston) will not depart on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Crescent (New York-New Orleans) will not depart on Tuesday and Wednesday. The City of New Orleans (Chicago-New Orleans) will not depart on Saturday and Sunday.

Unaffected by the cancellations are the Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Los Angeles) and Cardinal (Chicago-New York), both of which already operate three days a week.

The Silver Star (New York-Miami), Auto Train (Lorton, Virginia-Samford, Florida) and Palmetto (New York-Savannah, Georgia) will continue to operate daily.

The Silver Meteor (New York-Miami) is suspended entirely between Jan. 24 and March 27.

The staggered days of operation mean that for some trains their first day or not operating will occur after Jan. 24.

Cancellations of Hiawatha Service (Chicago-Milwaukee) is as follows: Trains 341 and 342 are cancelled in their entirety starting Jan. 24. Train 329 will operate only on Saturday and Sunday. Train 330 will operate only on Sunday. Train 343 will operate daily except Friday.

All of the service suspensions in the Empire Corridor will occur with trains operating between New York and Albany-Rensselaer, New York. All trains between New York and Niagara Falls, New York, via Buffalo, will continue operating daily.

In Pennsylvania, the New York-Pittsburgh Pennsylvanian will continue operating daily and there are no service suspensions planned for Keystone Service trains between New York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, via Philadelphia.

More information is available in the Trains report at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/analysis-a-closer-look-at-the-impact-of-amtraks-cancellations/

January Amtrak Service Cuts Seem Likely

Amtrak Service reductions in January appear to be a near certainty.

The passenger carrier’s president, Stephen Gardner, told a congressional hearing on Thursday, that the service cuts, which are expected to involve long-distance trains, are due to expected crew shortages stemming from a COVID-19 vaccination rule the carrier imposed.

Gardner said 94 percent of Amtrak workers are full vaccinated and 96 percent have received at least one immunization.

However, the company is expected to find itself short staffed as workers who have failed to be vaccinated are terminated. Another factor, Gardner said, is a wave of retirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said Amtrak also has faced slow going in hiring new workers to replace the retirees and vacancies expected to be created by those who do not comply with the vaccination rule.

Gardner said vaccination rates among workers are lowest in the ranks of workers assigned to long-distance routes.

Amtrak imposed the vaccination rule in compliance with an executive order issued by the Biden administration requiring employees of government contractors to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022.

That mandate has been challenged in federal courts and earlier this week a judge in Georgia issued a stay of the order. Unions representing workers at Amtrak and various Class 1 railroads have filed lawsuits challenging the rules imposed by the carriers.

It is unclear how these developments might affect the expected Amtrak service reductions.

Amtrak officials have been indicating for several weeks that the passenger carrier doesn’t expect to have enough fully vaccinated workers by January to support its full national network as well the various corridor services that it offers.

An announcement of which routes will see reduced service is expected to be made next week.

Those service cuts are expected to be similar to those imposed in October 2020 when most long-distance routes were reduced to tri-weekly or quad-weekly frequency of operation. The impetus for those reductions was low patronage cause by the pandemic depressing travel.

Those service reductions were restored on a route-by-route basis in last May and June.

During his testimony, Gardner said the long-distance route service cuts are expected to be temporary with full service restored by March.

In some crew bases that serve long-distance routes, Gardner said the rate of noncompliance with the vaccine rule is relatively high.

Passengers whose trips will be disrupted by the service cutbacks will be contacted and offered the opportunity to rebook their trips.

The hearing was held by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Rail Subcommittee hearing and was titled, “Leveraging Infrastructure and Jobs Act: Plans for Expanding Intercity Passenger Rail.”

Amtrak Service Cuts Eyed for January

Amtrak now expects to announce this month if it will need to impose service reductions in the wake of crew shortages that may occur if not enough employees are vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Trains magazine reported Monday on its website that employees received a letter stating that they are expected to have received their first vaccination shot by Dec. 8 and to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.

Amtrak has said employees who failed to meet the Jan. 4 deadline will be terminated. Those who miss the Dec. 8 deadline will be allowed to remain in service until early January before being let go if they remain unvaccinated.

Unions representing Amtrak workers have sued the passenger railroad over the issue.

Any service reductions will be detailed in mid December and become effective in January.

Amtrak has indicated service cuts may be needed on routes that lack enough operating personnel to move the trains.

As of Nov. 22, 88.2 percent of Amtrak workers have received at least one shot.

The schedule expected to be released this month will be based on vaccination status of operating personnel at that time.

The article can be read at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/amtrak-limits-track-friday-sale-service-reductions-possible-in-january-as-unions-file-suit/

Long Distance Trains Vulnerable to Amtrak Staff Shortages

Yesterday it was reported in this space that Amtrak is facing having to temporarily curtail some train services in December due to a shortage of operating and on-board personnel.

A report posted on the website of the Rail Passengers Association on Friday provided more detail about what could happen and why.

The Amtrak worker shortage is linked to two factors: A COVID-19 vaccination rule and workforce reductions made during the pandemic when services were curtailed due to lack of passengers.

Amtrak plans to remove from service after Dec. 8 those employees who have not received at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Although Amtrak’s vaccination rule contains an exemption for workers who have a verified medical or religious exemption, a memorandum sent by Amtrak CEO William Flynn indicated that that will only mean unvaccinated workers will be placed on unpaid leave.

Those workers who are unvaccinated and don’t have an exemption by Dec. 8 will be fired. It remains to be seen how many Amtrak workers will be let go or placed on unpaid leave.

The RPA report said Amtrak has enough workers in the Northeast Corridor to cover most trains operating there. But the workers shortage may become particularly acute on long-distance route where the passenger carrier could face a shortage of qualified locomotive engineers.

That means that Amtrak might be reducing the frequency of service on long-distant routes to tri-weekly as it did in October 2020.

The worker shortage, RPA noted, is rooted in more than some workers declining to be vaccinated.

Amtrak furloughed dozens of workers during the pandemic in an effort to conserve cash. It also suspended its new employee recruitment and training programs.

Thus far Amtrak has not released details on what trains may be suspended and/or cut back to reduced frequency of operation.

The Flynn memo indicated that plan is still being worked out and the company wants to see what response it gets among its unvaccinated workers.

One report indicated that 80 percent of Amtrak workers have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The RPA report indicated without providing specifics that Amtrak is developing incentive programs designed to move workers to where they’re needed most. It also has stepped up hiring and training.

Cutting workers was not the only step Amtrak took during the pandemic to conserve cash. It also mothballed numerous passenger cars and now faces a shortage of mechanical workers to get those cars ready to return to the road.

The result has been that reduced consists persist with fewer coaches, sleepers and lounge cars in service.

RPA said Amtrak will soon graduate a new class of agents to answer the phones in its reservation center. Until they are on the job prospective passengers face long waits to talk with an agent by phone.

The service cuts, if they occur, will come just before and probably extend into if not through the busy Christmas and New Year’s travel season.

It takes at least six months to qualify new locomotive engineers and get then into place at crew bases on the long-distance networks.

The shortage staff issue is not news to Amtrak management, which RPA said has known about it for several months. But it is just now surfacing in the traveling public.

LSL to Go Tri-Weekly on Monday

Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited arrives in Waterloo, Indiana, on Oct. 8, 2020.

The next round of frequency reductions of Amtrak long-distance trains will be implemented on Oct. 12 when the Lake Shore Limited, Texas Eagle, Coast Starlight and Southwest Chief begin tri-weekly operation.

That will mean that there will be no scheduled Amtrak service in northeast Ohio on Wednesdays.

On Oct. 5 the Capitol Limited, California Zephyr, City of New Orleans and Crescent shifted to operating tri-weekly operation.

The Lake Shore and Capitol Limited will depart New York/Boston and Washington respectively on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, putting them through Cleveland on Thursday, Saturday and Monday.

That is the same schedule the westbound Cardinal follows at Cincinnati.

Nos. 30 and 48/448 will depart Chicago on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, putting them into Cleveland on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.

However, the eastbound Cardinal departs Chicago on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and reaches Cincinnati on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The Empire Builder and Palmetto will change to tri-weekly operation on Oct. 19.

Once those changes are made only the Auto Train will operate daily among Amtrak’s long-distance trains.

The Silver Meteor began quad-weekly operation in early July. At the same time the Silver Star shifted to tri-weekly operation.

The New York-Miami trains are scheduled to operate on separate days so as to preserve daily service on some portions of their routes.

Although some congressional leaders and President Trump continue to issue public statements expressing support for another round of COVID-19 pandemic emergency aid, differences in opinion among the parties as to the size of the aid and what would be covered have prevented any deals from being reached.

Rail passengers advocates have sought to lobby to include emergency aid for Amtrak in the next round of pandemic aid and Amtrak is seeking additional funding in federal fiscal year 2021.

The fate of those funding requests remains unclear and Amtrak president William Flynn has warned that further employee furloughs and train service cuts are likely if Amtrak doesn’t get additional funding for FY 2021.

The passenger carrier like other federally-funded programs is operating with funding authorized by a continuing resolution that freezes funding levels at FY 2020 levels through Dec. 11.

Amtrak Execs Defend Move to Tri-Weekly Trains

Amtrak management is not counting on Congress to direct it to continue operating its long-distance trains on daily schedules this fall and winter but will maintain the status quo if so directed by lawmakers.

In an interview with Trains magazine, Amtrak President William Flynn and Senior Executive Vice President Stephen Gardner said the carrier has not developed contingency plans to operate its long-distance trains daily after October when it will be implementing tri-weekly service on all routes except the Auto Train.

“I don’t envision a situation where Congress is giving us something above the $3.5 billion,” Gardner said, “And they are not being fairly clear about what they expect in terms of operating levels.”

He was referring in part to Amtrak’s request for $1.475 billion in supplemental funding on top of the carrier’s $2.04 billion budget request for federal fiscal year 2021, which begins Oct. 1.

The House has approved $10 billion in funding for Amtrak in FY2021 along with a mandate to continue daily service on all routes that have it now.

However, the Senate has yet to act on the FY2021 appropriations bills. The Rail Passengers Association reported last week that Congressional hearings on Amtrak funding may be held in September.

“If Congress directs us to operate a seven-day service we will,” Flynn said.

But he warned that if Congress doesn’t provide suitable funding Amtrak will “have to make additional cuts to the workforce, and it would certainly affect our capital plans and suggest reductions on the Northeast Corridor and perhaps elsewhere on the national network.”

Flynn said Amtrak has not developed contingency plans for operating a daily long-distance network past October.

During the interview, both Amtrak executives defended the move to tri-weekly service with Gardner saying the situation this year is quite different than it was in 1995 when Amtrak reduced the operation of several, but not all, long-distance trains to tri- and quad-weekly after a consulting firm recommended that as a way to save money during a budget crunch.

A Government Accounting Office report later noted that the projected savings largely failed to materialize as expected because some costs did not fall as much as expected.

“We feel good about being able to save significant dollars for a limited period, and that makes sense because demand is so low,” Gardner said.

Amtrak has projected that operating long-distance trains at tri-weekly levels will yield a savings of $150 million.

Gardner, who serves as Amtrak’s chief operating and commercial officer, acknowledged that tri-weekly operation of trains is not ideal.

“Three days per week is not a good solution in a normal revenue environment [but] we’ve done our homework,” he said.

Trains also reported on Monday that earlier versions of the metrics Amtrak said it will use to determine when to return long-distance trains to daily operation were rejected by Capitol Hill staffers.

The staffers apparently proposed using metrics including airport bookings along long-distance routes and system-wide percentage drops in ridership since April.

Those suggestions also sought to chart long-distance ridership from October to May, something the Trains report said would overlook the strength of holiday-period travel.

Amtrak revenue in July was down 82 percent when compared with July 2019.

The 15 long-distance trains contributed 54 percent of the ticket revenue and long-distance trains income was down 61 percent when compared to July 2019.

Northeast Corridor revenue was down 93 percent and state-supported revenue was off 83 percent.

In the meantime, Amtrak has ceased selling sleeping car space starting Oct. 5 on the days that long-distance trains will not operate.

A statement issued by Amtrak on Monday said the carrier hopes to restore some or all long-distance service to daily operation in 2021, but that will hinge on adequate federal funding in FY2021 and at this point it is unclear how much money Amtrak will receive.

Amtrak Announces Tri-Weekly Service Schedules

Amtrak on Monday announced that it will be implementing tri-weekly service on all long-distance trains except the Auto Train starting the week of Oct. 5.

Amtrak said operations have been planned to preserve connections between long-distance trains in Chicago by having most trains originate and terminate there on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

However, there will be no same-day connections in Chicago from the eastern long-distance trains and the westbound Texas Eagle.

In a service advisory posted on its website the intercity rail passenger carrier attributed the decreased service to depressed travel demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The advisory made no reference to saving money although that point was made in a white paper that Amtrak posted to its website more than a week ago.

No scheduled departure or arrival times at any station will change. Amtrak said all stations on all routes will continue to have service on the days that the trains operate past those stations.

The Auto Train will continue to operate daily between Lorton, Virginia, and Sanford, Florida, and the Cardinal (Chicago-New York) and Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Los Angeles) already operate on tri-weekly schedules and are thus not affected by the changes.

The Silver Meteor and Silver Star (New York-Miami) moved to less than daily service on July 6.

The carrier also said sleeping cars will continue to operate on all trains that have them now and business class service will continue to be offered on the Coast Starlight (Seattle-Los Angeles), Lake Shore Limited (New York-Chicago) and Palmetto (New York-Savannah, Georgia).

Passengers who had reservations for travel on days when long-distance trains will not be operating will be re-accommodated or given a refund.

Schedule changes that will be implemented the week of Oct. 5 include:

California Zephyr (Chicago-Emeryville, California), depart Chicago on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday; depart Emeryville on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday

Capitol Limited (Chicago-Washington), depart Washington on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; depart Chicago on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

City of New Orleans (Chicago-New Orleans), depart New Orleans on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; depart Chicago on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

Crescent (New York-New Orleans, depart New York on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday; depart New Orleans on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Schedule changes that will be implemented the Week of Oct. 12 include:

Coast Starlight, depart Seattle on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday; depart Los Angeles on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

Lake Shore Limited (Chicago-New York/Boston), depart Chicago on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, depart New York/Boston on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Southwest Chief (Chicago-Los Angeles), depart Chicago on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, depart Los Angeles on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Texas Eagle (Chicago-San Antonio (Los Angeles), depart Chicago on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday; depart San Antonio on Tuesday, Friday, Sunday.

Schedule changes that will be implemented the week of Oct. 19:

Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle/Portland), depart Chicago on Monday, Thursday and Saturday; depart Seattle/Portland on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Palmetto, depart New York on Monday, Thursday and Saturday; depart Savannah on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Some Amtrak Service Cuts Take Effect in July

Amtrak’s plans to reduce the frequency of operation of its New York-Miami trains will mean there will be no connections to and from Florida on some days in Washington  and New York.

The passenger carrier plans on July 6 to begin operating the Silver Meteor four times a week and the Silver Star three times a week.

It is the first step of a larger plan to reduce operations of all long-distance trains except the Auto Train to less than daily service on Oct. 1.

The Silver Meteor will depart New York Monday through Thursday, and Miami Sunday through Wednesday.

The Silver Star will operate Friday through Sunday southbound and Thursday through Saturday northbound.

The New York-Savannah, Georgia, Palmetto will for now continue to operate daily.

The July schedule changes will preclude connections on some days to Florida from the Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited, and Cardinal.

Cross-Florida travel and service to South Carolina’s state capital, Columbia, will only be possible on different days around weekends.

A Trains magazine analysis noted that during May the combined ridership of the Silver Star and Silver Meteor was 7.2 million passenger miles generating $1.4 million of revenue.

That compares to 5.2 million passenger miles and $2.4 million in revenue for all Northeast Corridor trains between Boston and Washington.

Amtrak has said it it reducing the frequency of operation of its long distance trains due to steep ridership declines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The carrier also projects that ridership during federal fiscal year 2021 will be half of what it normally would be.