Amtrak service in Whitefish affected by Covid

Amtrak recently made temporary changes to the Empire Builder route that services Whitefish. The long-distance line’s departures have been reduced from seven days a week to five.

Whitefish currently has no service on Fridays and Saturdays because incoming trains from Chicago and Seattle have been canceled. The Empire Builder will continue to operate Sunday through Thursday.

According to Marc Magliari, regional Amtrak public relations manager, winter is a soft time of year for train travel. He told the Pilot last week that, “volume is down.”

But an Amtrak statement explains that is not the sole reason for the suspension of routes.

“Despite Amtrak’s rigorous vaccination and testing program, several hundred of our on-board service personnel, conductors, engineers, and mechanical crews continue to be impacted by Covid infections or exposures,” an Amtrak press release states.

The release also says that across all routes, Amtrak temporarily reduced services by 8% in order to provide safe and reliable service. Several long-distance routes across the country, in addition to the Empire Builder, are being affected by reduced services.

The schedule change for the Empire Builder began in late January and full service is set to resume on March 27. Amtrak officials say they are monitoring the situation and will make changes to the plans as necessary.