By Jessica Wehrman, Roll Call; October 19, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic may force a reckoning for Amtrak’s long-distance routes, bringing about cuts that critics have long urged but that passenger rail advocates in and out of Congress say could undermine the service’s mission.
Pummeled by the pandemic, Amtrak earlier this month began running three times a week what were previously daily long-distance routes. The nation’s only passenger rail system also began cutting 2,050 jobs out of its workforce of 18,500 and has reduced service on other routes as well.