The advocacy group for people with disabilities had planned weeks in advance for a two-hour trip outside Chicago, and had worked with Amtrak before.

The group asked for room for five wheelchairs on a train that had space for three. Amtrak had removed seats to make room for wheelchairs in the past, but this time Amtrak said it would carry a steep cost: $25,000.

Officials at Access Living, the Chicago-based group, were shocked at the charge. They noted that in the past Amtrak had reconfigured its train cars to allow many more passengers at no additional cost. By law, Amtrak must accommodate one wheelchair per car.

But Amtrak told them that it could no longer afford the costs of reconfiguring cars for additional wheelchairs, and that nationwide policy had changed as of 2019. “With removal of seats, it can be quite costly,” a customer service official said in a Jan. 2 email to the group. “Going forward, we cannot continue to absorb these fees.”