Texas Eagle service fading amid coronavirus
Already slimmed-down S.A.-to-Chicago trains no longer will run daily
“The harder you make it to take the train, the harder it is going to be to justify its continued operation.”
Garl Latham, Texas Association of Railroad Passengers
The last daily Texas Eagle train from San Antonio to Chicago left the station Sunday morning, its best days trailing far behind it.
The train had only four passenger cars.
The chef, a waiter and another food service worker had been furloughed recently, leaving only the cafe attendant to prepare and serve food to sleeping car passengers in the dining car. With a chef no longer on duty to cook scrambled eggs and bacon, a microwaved Jimmy Dean breakfast was the main hot breakfast choice on Sunday’s train.
The observation car, popular with passengers, also was missing. Amtrak reduced the number of Texas Eagle train cars from seven to four several weeks ago.
The cuts, however, didn’t bother Helen Clark, who was returning to Chicago after visiting San Antonio for a friend’s memorial service.
The nursing assistant would be in coach for the journey. She didn’t mind because the Amtrak trains were comfortable, and the seats reclined.
“I don’t like planes,” she said.
“Trains give me time to think and relax.”
The slimmed-down Texas Eagle now will depart only three days a week. It
will run Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for the 1,305-mile, 30hour-and-52-minute journey to the Windy City.
Versions of the Texas Eagle have operated out of San Antonio since 1948. Amtrak, the federally charted railroad corporation, took over the service in 1971.
Amtrak officials are reducing long-distance service because ridership has plunged amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They say longdistance train travel is down 80 percent from the same period last year.
In addition to the Texas Eagle, Amtrak has cut departures for 12 other long-distance trains from seven days a week to three.
Officials say they hope to restore service by June at the latest — assuming passenger demand rebounds and COVID-19 infection rates are down in communities along the train routes.
On Sunday, the train left the Near East Side station at 350 Hoefgen Ave. at 7 a.m. By the time it reached Austin, at least half the Texas Eagle’s more than 130 coach seats were full, as well as most of the 30 sleeper cabins.
The trip between San Antonio and Fort Worth took seven hours.
Nicolette boarded the train in San Marcos for an eight-hour trip to Gainesville, near the Texas-Oklahoma border. The woman, who declined to give her last name, said she planned to take a cab across the state line to the WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla.
She said she makes the trip every month for several days of gambling.
“I love the scenery that you don’t see on the highway,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about driving.”
The Amtrak route from San Antonio to Fort Worth takes numerous twists and turns, offering lush views of farms and open fields along much of the route.
Passengers don’t take trains for the speed. Cars and trucks are much faster.
The train’s top speed is 79 mph, but station stops and reduced speed because of freight trains and track construction can slow it considerably.
Many of the passengers on Sunday’s train, including Nicolette, didn’t know they were on the last daily Texas Eagle, a train that has run every day for at least the last 20 years.
Nicolette was planning to return from Gainesville on Wednesday, one of the days the train won’t be running. After hearing about the new schedule, she said she hoped to straighten out the matter with Amtrak’s call center.
The Texas Eagle’s crew members are worried about their jobs. Nine of the approximately 45 engineers, conductors and other workers at Amtrak’s crew base in San Antonio face layoffs.
“I’ve been working on this train for 10 years, but that may be not enough to avoid being out of work,” one crew member said during Sunday’s trip.
Earlier this year, Congress gave Amtrak $1 billion in emergency relief under the federal stimulus program. But Amtrak officials say they need more money to avoid layoffs.
In a letter Thursday to congressional leaders, Amtrak President and CEO William Flynn said the train operator needs up to $4.9 billion to help the corporation and its employees “through this unprecedented situation.”
The corporation furloughed about 2,000 employees last month. Flynn said in the letter that “insufficient funding levels could force Amtrak to reduce its workforce” by an additional 2,400 positions.
As Amtrak grapples with fallout from the pandemic, rail advocates question its commitment to longdistance trains, which the corporation has said consistently lose money.
“I think Amtrak is trying to systematically destroy the long-distance train network,” said Peter LeCody, president of Texas Rail Advocates.
LeCody, who has ridden the Texas Eagle dozens of times, said the elimination of cooked-to-order meals and the observation car are examples of the railroad making train travel less attractive.
LeCody also said the Texas Eagle is still popular.
The train crew Sunday said many passengers prefer travel by rail than by plane during the pandemic because they have more room to socially distance.
While Amtrak officials say they are committed to maintaining long-distance service, they’ve spent more time and money over the last several decades improving service on their high-speed Northeast Corridor routes between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.
Garl Latham, president and chairman of the Texas Association of Railroad Passengers, said Amtrak’s long-distance trains have gotten short shrift. Texas Eagle train cars, he said, are four decades old and lack basic internet services.
“The harder you make it to take the train, the harder it is going to be to justify its continued operation,” Latham said.