Amtrak fading from rural Nevada landscape

WASHINGTON — A last vestige of the American West — the passenger train — appears to be fading further from the Nevada landscape.

Because of decreased demand and shrinking ridership during the coronavirus pandemic, Amtrak has announced that it is slashing many of its long-distance routes from daily service to three times per week, starting this fall.

That includes the scenic California Zephyr line, which runs from Chicago through Denver, Salt Lake City, Elko, Winnemucca, Reno and into the San Francisco Bay Area.

“This is going to be devastating to many in our rural communities,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., told the Review-Journal in an interview Thursday.

Rurals hit hard

The news of the cuts was met with a loud whistle from lawmakers in far-flung states who dashed off a letter June 23 to William Flynn, Amtrak president and chief executive officer.

Lawmakers reminded him that the passenger rail system just received $1 billion in federal assistance in a coronavirus bill passed by Congress earlier this year.

“If Congress is going to continue funding Amtrak at historic levels, you need to work to ensure this path forward works for places such as Montana, Nevada and West Virginia,” wrote Cortez Masto and Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

The Nevada senators said daily passenger train service brings tourists, businesses and families to the state. It also provides jobs and reliable transportation in rural towns such as Winnemucca and Elko.

Cortez Masto said that in addition to tourists, rural Nevadans rely on Amtrak to get to Reno and Salt Lake City, where hospitals and medical services are located. With no airlines access and bus lines shuttering, the train is the last reliable mode of public transportation.

“The train is the only piece of transportation that they can access,” Cortez Masto said in an interview. “I hear that from many constituents in our rural communities, many Nevadans.”

COVID cutbacks

An Amtrak spokeswoman, Olivia Irvin, said the long-term impact of COVID-19 has forced Amtrak to operate with reduced capacity through fiscal year 2021, which begins Oct. 1, the date when the passenger rail services plans to reduce long-distance trains to three days per week.

“Our goal is to restore daily service on these routes as demand warrants, potentially by the summer of 2021,” Irvin said.

According to Amtrak, the rail system spends roughly $4.8 million in goods and services in Nevada annually, with the largest amount, about $4.6 million, spent in Reno.

A ridership survey in 2017 showed that about 88,000 passengers got on or off the Zephyr in Nevada. The passenger rail service also spent about $2.6 million in salaries for roughly 30 employees in the state.

The senators said the route reductions could mean a drop of 20 percent in spending in rural states.

“Putting the brunt of budget shortfalls on rural America and its workers is unacceptable, no matter the circumstances,” Cortez Masto and Rosen wrote to Flynn.

No Amtrak for Las Vegas

Amtrak passenger rail service to Las Vegas ended in 1997 when the Desert Wind route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles was scrapped.

The line used to stop at the Union Plaza hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas, a station built in the 1940s that played host to gamblers and tourists from Illinois, Utah and California.

Cortez Masto said she worries that Amtrak, which has argued over the years to reduce long-distance routes in the West in favor of more profitable Eastern Corridor routes, will use the pandemic to make the long-distance route cuts permanent.

“There are many of us, including some of our Republican colleagues, who will continue to watch this and talk with Amtrak,” Cortez Masto said of concern over the passenger rail reductions.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.