Amtrak Will Suck Even Harder Next Year (Vaccine Mandates)

https://jalopnik.com ^ | Dec 10, 2021

[11th_VA]

… Amtrak President Stephen Gardner told a House Transportation subcommittee that roughly 95% of its 17,000 employees have been fully vaccinated ahead of a Jan. 4 deadline.

“We anticipate proactively needing to temporarily reduce some train frequencies across our network in January to avoid staffing-related cancellations, with our plan to fully restore all frequencies by March or as soon as we have qualified employees available,” he said.

Gardner said in written testimony he expects the reductions to be in long-distance services “because of the relatively small crew bases at intermediate points along multi-day long-distance routes where conductors and engineers report to work.”

He noted that many engineers, conductors and on-board service employees retired or left Amtrak and it temporarily halted hiring due to funding uncertainty.

Without additional employee vaccinations Gardner said Amtrak is “currently determining what service reductions will be necessary and intend to communicate them publicly by next week.”

An inspector general report released on Thursday said Amtrak plans a big boost in hiring but faces challenges.

The report found Amtrak’s Human Resources Department “does not have sufficient leadership or staff to effectively recruit, screen, hire, and onboard new employees, which will likely hinder the company’s plans to add 2,500 to 3,500 new employees” by late 2022...

[11th_VA]

Oh well …

[Captain Walker]

This is old news.

Amtrak announced this week that the mandates have been suspended.

[GaryCrow]

The last time I rode Amtrak was in 1983, I was 15 years old and it was such a miserable experience that I swore I would never set foot on one of their trains again. I've kept my word.

I'm frequently in Europe on business and take the trains often, they're a great way to move around there over medium distances.

I'll never ride Amtrak though, what a miserable POS company.

[bakeneko]

Taggart Transcontinental.

All the competent people retired or quit.

[Herakles]

Working for this satanic government is bending over and taking it up the arse!

[alexander_busek]

Amtrak President Stephen Gardner told a House Transportation subcommittee that roughly 95% of its 17,000 remaining employees have been fully vaccinated.

There, fixed it!

Taggart Transcontinental. All the competent people retired or quit.

My meaning exactly!

Regards,

[Rebelbase]

10-12 years ago I’d ride Amtrak to company meetings 2 hours away twice a year only because the train schedule was perfect for a morning/afternoon round trip. There were only a few people in the cars and the seats had recently been replaced.

I especially liked avoiding the “We are all going for drinks, come along”...’Can’t do it the train leaves soon’.

[Vaduz]

Wonder how many who have the wealth to have their own rail car got to be fun.