Proposed Cuts to Amtrak and Its Potential Effects

The train system in the United States has been notoriously sparse for a very long time. If you live on the East Coast, you may not be aware of how rare a thing it is to be able to commute between cities with relative ease and at normal times of day. Try to get from Chicago to Cleveland and you will find yourself stepping off on the shores of Lake Erie at 1:30 a.m. because that is the only time to arrive. With this knowledge it might seem surprising cuts were proposed for Amtrak at the same time high-speed space trains are being proposed for the exact same routes.

Commuting on the coasts may not be drastically affected, but safety and longer distance travel could be heavily hit in the coming years. Additionally, there are already some changes to long-standing Amtrak policies since March of this year that will affect all passengers. First, there are fewer ticket agents overall. They will be replaced by self-service kiosks, if at all. Since March 20, the cancellation policy changed and the fees to cancel your ticket have been altered. This affects all ticket classes. Unless you act within a small window, you will not get a refund or even a voucher for your ticket. There are no longer discounts for AAA members either, which used to be a cool 10 percent. Keep your eye out for more changes in the coming months.