Amtrak chief expects service cuts next year due to vaccine mandates
President Biden’s preferred method of travel will have to reduce service early in 2022 if and when his vaccinate mandates are enforced.
Amtrak President Stephen Gardner told House lawmakers Thursday that while 96 percent of his employees have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 94 percent are considered fully vaccinated, “we anticipate that we will not initially have enough employees to operate all the trains we are currently operating when the federal mandate takes effect.”
Gardner added that any service reduction or disruption would primarily affect Amtrak’s multi-day, long-distance services.
“We are currently determining what service reductions will be necessary and intend to communicate them publicly by next week in order to ensure that we can rebook customers to the remaining frequencies we feel confident we can fully staff,” he said.
Amtrak, which employs more than 20,000 people, is subject to the White House vaccine mandate that government contractors require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, with exemptions only granted for medical or religious reasons. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Georgia issued a nationwide injunction putting the mandate on hold.
In his testimony, Gardner blamed the shortfall in potential workers on the fact that “many engineers, conductors and on-board service employees retired or left Amtrak during the pandemic, and we temporarily halted hiring due to funding uncertainty and COVID-related distancing requirements that inhibited training”.
Gardner reiterated that if his remaining employees are not fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, “we will not have sufficient trained staff to support current service frequency on affected routes, as engineers and conductors must undergo extensive training both when hired or promoted and to become qualified on the characteristics of each route on which they work.”
It was unclear if Gardner was aware of the Georgia ruling temporarily blocking implementation of the contractor vaccine mandate.
The announcement of expected service cuts comes one month after Congress allocated roughly $66 billion in new spending to Amtrak as part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
President Biden is known to be a devotee of the passenger rail service, having made thousands of rides between Washington and his hometown of Wilmington, Del. while in the Senate and as vice president. He has not used the service since he was sworn in as president in January.
Earlier Thursday, the president even mentioned his affection for Amtrak in remarks honoring the late Sen. Bob Dole.
“He did have great wit,” Biden said of Dole. “They once asked him why in God’s name did he vote to continue to fund Amtrak. He said because if he didn’t, ‘Biden would stay overnight and cause more trouble.’
“I commuted every day,” the president added by way of explanation.
“Amtrak just got about $60 billion in new funding, but now President Biden’s vaccine mandates are spurring new worker shortages and service cuts, thwarting recovery from historic Amtrak losses last year,” House Transportation Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-Mo.) reacted in a statement. “Taxpayers will be paying more money for less service.”
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) echoed Graves’ sentiments, adding that he believes the White House needs to change course on how it’s handling “our economy, our transportation networks and frankly, just our country as a whole.”
“It’s actually another example of the Biden administration really not understanding how our transportation system should operate during a pandemic, or at this time near the end of the pandemic,” he told The Post. “It’s frustrating that at a time when Amtrak is trying to increase ridership, the administration is trying to get between the doctor and the Amtrak employees who may be following their own medical advice.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki sought to put a positive spin on Gardner’s statement Thursday, calling it “great news” that a high percentage of the Amtrak workforce had been vaccinated and adding that the administration did not expect non-vaccinated workers to be summarily dismissed when the mandate took effect.
“They also still have about a month before the deadline for federal contractors on January 4, or at least a couple of weeks, four weeks approximately,” said Psaki. “What we have conveyed to employers is that post-deadline we expect employers will follow their standard HR process. That means for employees not in compliance, they’ll go through education, counseling, accommodations and enforcement. That would be what the process would be to play out.
“But of course, these requirements, we don’t expect these requirements will cause disruptions to services that people depend on,” she added. “There’s some time to implement it.”
