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Omicron Forces Amtrak Service Cuts
January 18, 2022 | High Performance, Intercity, News, Passenger
Omicron Forces Amtrak Service Cuts
Written by David Peter Alan, Contributing Editor
Amtrak has been impacted by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has sickened, albeit not killed, millions of people, even the fully vaccinated, creating staff shortages. Seven months after Amtrak restored full service, the cuts are coming again. Most long-distance trains will be affected, along with some trains on a number of corridors in the East and Midwest, including the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The severity of service reductions will be uniform for most of the long-distance routes, but less so on the corridors in the Northeast and around Chicago.
Amtrak has announced that the cuts will last through Sunday, March 27, a ten-week duration. The coming reductions will not be as severe as the ones instituted in October 2020, which eliminated an absolute majority of weekly long-distance runs, but they will have a negative impact on all trains.
Amtrak’s announcement came on Jan. 14, blaming the COVID-19 virus, particularly the Omicron strain, for the service reductions. Its explanation is plausible on its face, because of other disruptions that Omicron has caused. The release summarized the service reductions this way:
• Suspension of 8% of Northeast Regional weekly departures between Jan. 24 and March 27.
• Suspension of 6% of state-supported weekly departures between Jan. 18 and March 27.
• Suspension of two weekly departures on nine long-distance routes between Jan. 24 and March 27, reducing weekly service from daily to five days per week; routes include the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Texas Eagle, Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited and City of New Orleans.
• Suspension of Silver Meteor daily service between Jan. 17 and March 27, 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.
The “8%” and “6%” figures are somewhat misleading, because they constitute averages of new levels of service on lines whose service has been reduced relatively severely and other lines that will suffer no reductions at all. On the long-distance network, though, most trains will run five consecutive days a week, and not on the other two. There are exceptions, though. The Cardinal and Sunset Limited, which have operated on tri-weekly schedules for most or all of Amtrak’s history, will continue to run on their current schedules. The situation is also different on the route to Florida.
{snip}
Omicron Forces Amtrak Service Cuts
Written by David Peter Alan, Contributing Editor
Amtrak has been impacted by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has sickened, albeit not killed, millions of people, even the fully vaccinated, creating staff shortages. Seven months after Amtrak restored full service, the cuts are coming again. Most long-distance trains will be affected, along with some trains on a number of corridors in the East and Midwest, including the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The severity of service reductions will be uniform for most of the long-distance routes, but less so on the corridors in the Northeast and around Chicago.
Amtrak has announced that the cuts will last through Sunday, March 27, a ten-week duration. The coming reductions will not be as severe as the ones instituted in October 2020, which eliminated an absolute majority of weekly long-distance runs, but they will have a negative impact on all trains.
Amtrak’s announcement came on Jan. 14, blaming the COVID-19 virus, particularly the Omicron strain, for the service reductions. Its explanation is plausible on its face, because of other disruptions that Omicron has caused. The release summarized the service reductions this way:
• Suspension of 8% of Northeast Regional weekly departures between Jan. 24 and March 27.
• Suspension of 6% of state-supported weekly departures between Jan. 18 and March 27.
• Suspension of two weekly departures on nine long-distance routes between Jan. 24 and March 27, reducing weekly service from daily to five days per week; routes include the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Texas Eagle, Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited and City of New Orleans.
• Suspension of Silver Meteor daily service between Jan. 17 and March 27, 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.
The “8%” and “6%” figures are somewhat misleading, because they constitute averages of new levels of service on lines whose service has been reduced relatively severely and other lines that will suffer no reductions at all. On the long-distance network, though, most trains will run five consecutive days a week, and not on the other two. There are exceptions, though. The Cardinal and Sunset Limited, which have operated on tri-weekly schedules for most or all of Amtrak’s history, will continue to run on their current schedules. The situation is also different on the route to Florida.
{snip}