Amtrak to Reduce Service as Manpower Shrinks over Biden Vaccine Mandate

Amtrak on Thursday revealed plans to reduce services in 2022 over its employees’ defiance of President Biden’s vaccine mandate.

As Amtrak attempts to meet Biden’s mandate of forcing 100 percent of federal government contractors to be fully vaccinated, the railroad company’s president, Stephen Gardner, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee the business will need to reduce service frequency, primarily among its long distance lines. Gardner said:

We anticipate that we will not initially have enough employees to operate all the trains we are currently operating when the federal mandate takes effect. Achieving full service levels, while complying with the vaccination requirement and continuing to prioritize the safety of our customers and employees, is our goal.

Gardner told the committee 94 percent of his employees are vaccinated. That number does not include those on leave of absence or approved accommodation.

“We hope that all employees who have already received one vaccination dose, which all employees are required to receive as of today, will be fully vaccinated by January 4,” Gardner added.

Gardner told the committee Amtrak agreed to participate in Biden’s mandate in August but were already under stress keeping services in operation due to employees who left the company amid large pandemic unemployment benefits.

Amtrak is just one of many companies struggling to maintain employees after Biden issued the $1.8 trillion coronavirus relief package in March, which included borrowed money to fund unemployment programs.

Between Biden’s vaccine mandate on the nation’s workforce and workers preferring to accept Biden’s dole instead of participating in the economy, the result has been a supply chain crisis.

The supply chain crisis has impacted American families with increased prices for goods that have become more difficult to obtain.

Polling shows many of the top concerns among Americans are inflation and the supply chain crisis, though nearly half believe Biden’s policies to fix the crisis have further damaged the United States.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø