Amtrak is preparing to slash its workforce by as much as 20 percent in its upcoming fiscal year as the U.S.’s lone nationwide passenger railroad braces for a slow recovery to ridership that’s been gutted by the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News. Amtrak projects ridership will return to just half of 2019 levels in its upcoming fiscal year beginning in October, Amtrak Chief Executive Officer William Flynn said in a memo to employees. The railroad has already reduced service and taken other cost-cutting measures amid a 95 percent decline in ridership and revenue but further reductions are needed to align with a sustained period of depressed demand, he said. “Congress expects us to operate like any other business — and while they have supported us with emergency funding for FY 2020, they are not going to support us endlessly to run mostly empty trains,” Flynn said. The workforce reductions will account for $350 million of a plan to slash operating costs by $500 million next year, Flynn said in a separate letter to top U.S. lawmakers on Monday. In that letter, Flynn said that the railroad would need nearly $1.5 billion in additional funding from congressional appropriators in addition to the internal cuts being planned and $1 billion in emergency aid provided by the $2.2 trillion virus stimulus bill.
