Winona Daily News – September 21, 2020
Amtrak will cut down on daily long-distance trains and transition to a tri-weekly format through southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin by mid-October, despite the fact the daily trains are the company’s current crutch for revenue.
Since March and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in numerous businesses suffering greatly, Amtrak’s ridership has fallen by 95%, according to All Aboard Minnesota and All Aboard Wisconsin. Due to this drop in ridership, the company’s projected revenue for 2021 has gone down by 50%. To remedy this, Amtrak is not only cutting the number of days it runs long-distance trains, but also cutting its workforce by 20%, which it estimates will save $213 million in costs and $500 million in cost savings.
