Monday morning rail news:
— Amtrak, which normally handles 100,000 passengers a day, is down to about 4,000 a day because of the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Richard Anderson told employees during his weekly Town Hall session on Friday. “We are running trains where we have more staff than customers,” Anderson said. While the $1.018 billion Amtrak is receiving from the coronavirus relief act is “essential,” he said, “we are burning about $50 million a week in cash.” About 57% of all departures have been suspended nationwide, including about 77% in the Northeast Corridor, he said. “We are going to be a very different railroad when we come out the other on the other side of this; we will be 20% smaller … We will build up from where we are as customers buy tickets. The hope is that people will realize we’re much better than airlines in shorter-haul markets because we don’t pack ‘em in like the airlines do.” Trains News Wire obtained a recording of the online Town Hall session.
— A federal judge has removed a class action lawsuit against BNSF Railway over asbestos exposure in Libby, Mont., from federal court and remanded to Cascade County, Mont., District Court, KECI-TV reports. Nearly 200 plaintiffs have filed suit against the railroad, alleging it caused harm by transporting asbestos-laced vermiculate from Libby [see “News Wire Digest Second Section for Friday, March 13”]. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris wrote in his judgment that the federal court accepting jurdisidction “would transform a distinctly local issue … into a national issue.”
— While ridership has plummeted, on-time performance has risen for the Long Island Railroad — and the two are not unrelated, Newsday reports. March on-time performance was 95.3%, tying the best figure in eight years. Last year, the LIRR attributed 23% of its nearly 19,000 delays to passenger loading and unloading times, but with ridership down by as much as 97%, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Patrick J. Foye, that problem has been greatly reduced. The LIRR is currently running about 30% fewer trains than normal.
— An 18-year-old Chicago man has been arrested and charged with murder after allegedly pushing a 29-year-old into the path of a Chicago Transit Authority train last week. The Chicago Tribune reports Ryan Munn was arrested Friday night for allegedly punching and pushing 29-year-old Mamadou Balde, a Marine veteran, into a passing train at the Jackson station on the Red Line, killing Balde.
— Despite torrential storms and tornados in the South over Easter weekend, the region’s two major railroads reported little damage. On Monday, a Norfolk Southern representative tells Trains that the railroad experienced disruptions in northeastern Alabama and northern Georgia from downed trees and a minor washout Sunday evening. That damage had been repaired by Monday with service resuming. A CSX Transportation representative said some traffic had slowed from downed trees in the region, but that there were no major disruptions.
— — Correspondent Bob Johnston contributed to this report.
