Here is the list, by affected train and closing date. An asterisk (*) indicates that the station is currently staffed for all arriving and departing trains and therefore offers checked baggage service and assistance for travelers with disabilities:
Southwest Chief (5): Lamy, N.M.(July 31)*; La Junta, Colo.(June 1)*; Topeka, Kan.(May 20)*; Garden City, Kan.(May 15); and Fort Madison, Ia.(May 16)
Crescent (2): Meridian, Miss.(May 17)* and Tuscaloosa, Ala.(May 21)*
Texas Eagle (2): Texarkana, Ark.(May 15)* and Marshall, Tex. (June 29)
Empire Builder (2): Havre, Mont.(June 1)* and Shelby, Mont.(June 5)*
Cardinal (2): Cincinnati, Oh. (June 5)* and Charleston, W.Va.(June 6)*
California Zephyr (1): Ottumwa, Ia.(May 19)
City of New Orleans (1): Hammond, La.(May 15)*
Magliari tells Trains News Wire that whether passengers will be offered trainside checked baggage at any of the stations losing that service has not been determined, but that decision will happen soon.
“The different dates depend on the staffing in the area and also whether agents are moving from station to station as a result of attrition (retirements),” he says. A total of 22 jobs are being eliminated, but agents can exercise seniority rights, so people at other locations are affected.
No station is being closed, since caretakers are being hired to open waiting rooms before train time. Amtrak management has been transitioning staffing at small town stations in this manner over the last several years with the migration of payment and ticketing to www.amtrak.com. Magliari says only one in 10 reservations are booked by station agents on a nationwide basis, but the company has been hastening the process by offering discounts only on its website.
Passenger rail advocates took the news harshly. “This seems to be part of Amtrak’s new cost-savings strategy under CEO Richard Anderson to cut station staffing and on-board service to the long-distance national network”, said Peter LeCody, Rail Passengers Chair and President of Texas Rail Advocates. “In Amtrak’s last fiscal year the Texas Eagle service had the highest gain in ridership and one of the highest gains in revenue among the 15 long distance trains. Why in the world would you want to cut service to these cities when you are on the upswing? Removing the local agent means no ticketing or information service available locally, no checked bag service, and the loss of an interface with tourism to the economies of Marshall and Texarkana.
“I’d like to see how much local marketing and local outreach was done in these communities in the past year to actually attract more riders to alert them there is actually train service available”, LeCody added. “Knowing how local marketing and outreach efforts were cut in Texas it would not surprise me that the other towns and cities were also ignored. Why not try to build up ridership before you go and make cuts?”
The loss of the Charleston agent follows the loss of agents at Huntington and Prince, leaving the state with no stations with agents on the route of the Cardinal.
The job cuts come on the heels of Amtrak’s decision to eliminate freshly-prepared hot meals and the dining car staffs who prepare them on the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited beginning June 1.
Chase Gunnoe contributed to this report.
While you’re at it DENNIS SCHAUER, why not complain about the huge hidden subsidy for trucking, air, and water transport? Those perks are hidden in other ways not visible to the congress or public. Billion dollars for a river lock? No problem, charge to move a barge tow? Why nothing thank you very much. Yet Amtrak is a yearly battle for funding. These issues have existed since Amtrak was created, not just the past couple years.
Surprised to see Havre on the list, that was a major Builder stop, passengers got off and roamed around, took pics and even the sleeper crews tossed a frisbee around, so I would have thought it was a busy place. I am glad Kirkwood, MO had volunteers take over the staffing of their station, because you can go inside and wait. I board downtown St. L when I am traveling on my own, but local railfan group often boards there. Makes it nice to have people around to assist the passengers in getting on or off.
Ol’ Slash and Burn Anderson is at it again and it seems no one can do anything about it because he has the backing of President Dingleberry and the congressional majority. He’s moving very quickly because the 2020 elections are only 2 and a half years away and the political landscape may be very different afterwards( I hope). The broom sweeps both ways. Until then, let’s just enjoy our cold food. I just heard today’s vegetable being served is ketchup. Oh boy!!!!!!
I echo the comments below, but also keep in mind that Amtrak’s biggest customer isn’t a passenger, it’s the federal government. Loose that funding, and away goes Amtrak. In the end, Amtrak doesn’t really have to care too much about passengers. It has to keep government happy. And to do that, it has to keep taxpayers happy. And to do that, it has to keep its costs low.
Jim Norton: Wick isn’t the only one to blame. We have to include the Amtrak board approved Anderson. I’m just a rail fan who likes trains and a member of the Rail Passengers Association. But, when I read Anderson’s background, I had a sickening feeling that this might happen.
GARY D – Delta doesn’t need to destroy Amtrak. Delta’s doing just fine and Amtrak isn’t. How many Amtrak trains at Atlanta and how many Delta flights? Get real. How many Amtrak trains at MSP and how many Delta flights. Ditto, Detroit, ditto Salt Lake.
Seems Anderson studied the freight railroads’ game plan of the 1960s and 1970s for line abandonment — crush service to a point where customers depart, thus being able to convince the feds that a line has no economic value so it should be abandoned.
Looks like Anderson is an undercover agent for Delta and the airline industry
The “airline-ization” of Amtrak continues.
Without Cincinnati now, the Cardinal won’t be the same anymore. How are these people gonna find out when their train will arrive plus check heavy luggage? Thins isn’t right, since they taken away the WV station agents along this route. Wake up, Amtrak!!!
Gerald other stations are staffed by caretakers, no reason these can’t be as well
The slow dismantling continues. Score another one for the folks who fear passenger rail as if it is the work of the devil. And score one for the airlines too. The Anderson mole has nibbled a few more roots out from under the structure that (already barely) keeps Amtrak a viable system.
Call/write your senators and representative. And Amtrak. I’ve done so a couple of times already. I don’t get responses from Amtrak anymore (outside a generic response acknowledging the comment). I sometimes get responses from the Congress….
It just hit me….The Meridian station is one really nice, big, newer station. It was built as a transportation center and now has no one to man the Amtrak counter?! Come on.
For what it’s worth, I find it ironic that these cuts to LD comes as we gear up for what many people consider LD’s high season for tourists – the summer months. I presume these cuts will drive away ridership which will lead, in turn, to further cuts?
More lives being disrupted and American jobs going away.
I could write for pages on Amtrak’s failures. Let’s not forget its (few) huge successes: the California corridors, the Hiawatha, and the extension of the NEC into Virginia. Most TRAINS-MAG readers aren’t old enough to remember the first few years of Amtrak. I am. In 1971, the California corridors consisted of three trains to San Diego and nothing else. The average Californian of today, if shown the first few Amtrak timetables, wouldn’t believe it. The mobs that crowd today’s Hiawathas weren’t around when the trains were three cars long and half empty.
Ted,
Please see the article again and the quote from Peter LeCody, the RPA president, regarding comments from at least one rail advocacy group.
I also wonder how former mayor of Meridian Mississippi, John Robert Smith, who did so much to promote investment in stations by cities and to promote Amtrak is taking this. Not much of a thank you
Finally, I wonder why Amtrak did not look into tying the station agents into the phone reservation system so they could help with this when it was not train time. Although I guess phone reservations are down dramatically as well.
Sure looks like the “beginning of the end” for L D. I have reservations for a L D trip in Sept., wonder if any trains will be operating ? I t is difficult to understand the silence from rail advocate groups.
Anderson’s job is simply to make Amtrak undesirable for passengers . It can then fade into the sunset !!!!!
It is likely that a nice chunk of the benefit of LD trains acrues outside Amtrak’s balance sheet and on the streets of the towns the train serves. Perhaps the towns on the routes, some of which already fund the stations, could also fund and/or supply the agents.
I am disheartened by all of the cuts that Amtrak has and is proposing to do. I hope this not the end of the passenger train as we know it.
Sean Bossinger, these stations will lose checked baggage service; that’s what happened at Grand Forks ND when the agent retired and was not replaced a few years ago.
Look at the big picture: PPC gone, diners on the way out, stations on the way out, Anderson said in Los Angeles two weeks ago that the LD trains play no role and that he wants to replace them with DMUs on 400-mile isolated segments, but only where states pay for them. This is all-out war on the national system.
Of course states that want to be extorted can still hire Amtrak to run short corridors.
The laugh will be on Anderson and the NEC mafia that controls the Board when the LD trains are gone, but the annual subsidy is UP not down, which is what happened in 1979, and again when the Pioneer and Desert Wind died.
Has anyone at Amtrak considered letting the local municipalities staff the stations…it’s not like cities can’t hire their own workers and take over the services themselves.