WASHINGTON — The president of the Rail Passengers Association, Jim Mathews, criticized Amtrak’s plan to shift many long-distance trains from daily to tri-weekly service as overreaction to recent ridership declines resulting from the COVID-19 disease. Remaking the entire national network is no solution to a temporary, albeit dramatic, decline in ridership, Mathews said. “Working with legislators and policymakers to find a way through is the right answer,” he said. Mathews noted that Amtrak’s poorest-performing trains already are its less-than-daily services – not the daily service like the Chicago-Seattle train through Winona. There are other implications, he said – like losing operating slots on host railroads, such as the Canadian Pacific for the Empire Builder’s Chicago-St. Paul l \eg across southern Wisconsin and up the Mississippi River to St. Paul. He expressed concern too about losing employees to restore service later.
Earlier: Amtrak cutting Empire Builder as daily
Winona service
10:11 a.m. to LaCrosse Milwaukee, Chicago and connections east, south and west
7:50 p.m. to St. Paul, the Dakotas, Montana, Seattle, Portland