Amtrak Resumes Daily Service As Pandemic Wanes

SEATTLE, WA — Amtrak has restored daily service for a dozen long distance routes, including a pair that run through the Pacific Northwest.

Starting Monday, the Empire Builder, which runs from Chicago through Portland to Seattle, and the Coast Starlight, which runs from Seattle to Los Angeles, resumed daily service.

As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer first reported, both routes had previously been restricted to three trips per week.

It has been nearly a full year since Amtrak first announced they were reducing service due to the pandemic. Last March, the company said that their normal passenger load had dropped from between 2,300 and 3,600 daily passengers down to fewer than 300 passengers per day.

Now that the vaccination rollout is making headway and pandemic restrictions have started lifting, Amtrak says they're ready to get back to business.

They'll be doing it in steps, however. For now, trains will only be filled to half capacity to leave space for social distancing. Passengers will still be required to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. Train bistros are also serving food and drink once again, but customers will need to pay with debit or credit cards.

“For 50 years, Amtrak has been connecting us to our destinations. Whether it is Seattle to San Francisco, New York to Washington DC, or Chicago to Dallas, it had provided riders with affordable travel and tourism revenue to small and rural communities," said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) in a written statement. "We need to restore services cut during the pandemic, and we look forward to another 50 years of Amtrak.”

Under their new schedule, Amtrak says southbound trains are leaving Seattle daily at 7:25 a.m., 2:20 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. Northbound trains will leave Portland at 8:20 a.m., noon and 7:30 p.m.

As service resumes across the country, 12,000 furloughed Amtrak workers will return to their jobs, the Associated Press reported.

Amtrak will resume trips between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. when the Canadian border reopens. Until then, the northbound line ends in Bellingham.