By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak informed a U.S. Home of Representatives panel on Thursday it expects to be compelled to quickly reduce some service in January due to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Amtrak President Stephen Gardner informed a Home Transportation subcommittee that roughly 95% of its 17,000 workers have been absolutely vaccinated forward of a Jan. 4 deadline.

“We anticipate proactively needing to quickly scale back some practice frequencies throughout our community in January to keep away from staffing-related cancellations, with our plan to completely restore all frequencies by March or as quickly as now we have certified workers obtainable,” he mentioned.

Gardner mentioned in written testimony he expects the reductions to be in long-distance companies “due to the comparatively small crew bases at intermediate factors alongside multi-day long-distance routes the place conductors and engineers report back to work.”

He famous that many engineers, conductors and on-board service workers retired or left Amtrak and it quickly halted hiring as a consequence of funding uncertainty.

With out extra worker vaccinations Gardner mentioned Amtrak is “at the moment figuring out what service reductions can be crucial and intend to speak them publicly by subsequent week.”

An inspector common report launched on Thursday mentioned Amtrak plans an enormous enhance in hiring however faces challenges.

The report discovered Amtrak’s Human Assets Division “doesn’t have enough management or employees to successfully recruit, display screen, rent, and onboard new workers, which is able to probably hinder the corporate’s plans so as to add 2,500 to three,500 new workers” by late 2022.

Amtrak mentioned in feedback that it agreed with the report’s suggestions and pledged particular actions by October 2022, together with “reviewing govt compensation and incentives.”

Congress has accredited $66 billion for rail as a part of an enormous infrastructure invoice, with Amtrak receiving $22 billion and $36 billion for aggressive grants.

Gardner mentioned the funding “would require educating, hiring, coaching, and growing profession paths for 1000’s of extra staff.”

Amtrak noticed demand fall off considerably throughout COVID-19 and is now seeing about 70% of pre-pandemic volumes. “We do not know the way lengthy it’s going to take earlier than enterprise journey has returned,” Gardner mentioned.