© Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS An Amtrak Empire Builder train prepares to depart in 2017 from Chicago's Union Station.

Amtrak told employees Wednesday it will “significantly” reduce service and offer an unpaid voluntary leave program as bookings on the national railroad drop 50% in the wake of the growing coronavirus outbreak.

The memo, which was obtained by the Tribune, said cancellations are up 300% and ridership has “declined sharply” in the Northeast and across Amtrak’s national network, with those trends accelerating in recent days.

“You should expect significant reductions in train service across portions of our network in response to the sharp drop in ridership,” Stephen Gardner, chief operating officer for Amtrak, said in the memo. “Shortly, we will begin rolling out our voluntary leave program for those non-mission critical employees that are willing to take time off on an unpaid basis.”

Amtrak has temporarily suspended three trains that operate between New York and Washington due to lower demand.

There have been no route reductions out of Chicago’s Union Station, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. That could change, however.

“More than half of the Amtrak service in Chicago is state sponsored and before we would make any changes in that service, we’ll have discussions with the state transportation departments in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan,” which provide funding for the routes, Magliari said.



With the decline in demand expected to continue “for some time,” Amtrak said in the memo it “will likely suffer the loss of several hundred million dollars in revenue during this fiscal year — and we might lose more.”

The bleak forecast has prompted the national railroad to begin what it called “aggressive” cost-cutting measures, including the voluntary leave program.

Last week, a St. Louis-area woman tested positive for COVID-19 after flying into O’Hare International Airport and then taking an Amtrak train to her home. The train she rode was taken out of service and given a deep cleaning over the weekend before hitting the tracks again on Monday, Magliari said. The line makes several stops between Chicago and St. Louis, including Joliet, Bloomington-Normal, Springfield and Alton.



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