Amtrak is scaling back Southwest Chief train service starting in October in response to falling ridership stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Southwest Chief now runs daily between Chicago and Los Angeles with stops in Kansas, including Lawrence, Topeka, Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City.
The Chief will now run three times a week as Amtrak makes service adjustments to its 15 long-distance cross-country routes.
The service changes will start Oct. 1 and will return as demand warrants. It could return to daily service by the summer of 2021.
Last month, Amtrak announced it was slashing 20% of its workforce – or about 3,700 jobs – in the face of plummeting ridership because of the coronavirus.
Amtrak says ridership is down as much as 95% year-over-year.
Additionally, the demand for long-distance service is down by 70%, and Amtrak expects systemwide ridership in fiscal year 2021 to be half of what it was in 2019.
Ridership on the Southwest Chief is down about 22% through April of the current federal fiscal year, which ends September 30.
In April of this year, ridership plummeted almost 90% from a year earlier, falling from 23,798 in April 2019 to 3,375 in 2020.
Ridership was down about 51% in March 2020 compared to March 2019, dropping to 13,258 from 27,191 last year.
The decision to cut long-distance train service comes after Amtrak made changes to service in the northeastern United States and its state-supported service such as the Missouri River Runner route between St. Louis and Kansas City.
In March, the Missouri service was reduced from two round trips a day to one round trip per day between Kansas City and St. Louis.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran has been a leading advocate for preserving train service through Kansas because of the important transportation connections it provides to rural areas of the state.
“Multiple modes of transit have scaled back service schedules due to COVID-19,” Moran said in a statement.
“However, I remain committed to ensuring Amtrak will be held accountable for returning to normal operating routes and schedules on long-distance lines, including the Southwest Chief, as we begin to safely reopen our economy.
“These routes are imperative to our rural communities, and I will continue to work with my colleagues and Amtrak to make certain Kansans can depend on these routes for years to come.”
