Part of Donald Trump’s budget cuts asks for a 13 percent reduction to the U.S. Department of Transportation which could ultimately affect a lot of the Amtrak routes.
The cuts would get rid of some of the long distance routes like the California Zephyr, and according to Trump will allow Amtrak “to focus on better managing its state-supported and Northeast Corridor train services.”
Some of the long distance routes require more repairs than the others, but Amtrak doesn’t agree that they need to go.
The company’s president and CEO Wick Moorman released a statement about the potential cuts.
“Amtrak operates 15 long-distance trains across the nation, and these routes offer the only Amtrak service in 23 of the 46 states we serve. Amtrak is very focused on running efficiently—we covered 94 percent of our total network operating costs through ticket sales and other revenues in FY ’16—but these services all require federal investment.”
