Effect of shutdown on Amtrak
 

I realize that Amtrak is not a government agency, but it does depend on federal government subsidies. Will Amtrak be affected by the shutdown? I could not find any information on their website. I presume that any short-term shutdown should not affect Amtrak, but if this becomes a protracted situation, at some point the subsidies would stop flowing.

Any clarifications (especially from the AGR insider) would be welcome.

Thank you!

They've announced a couple times in the last week that travel wouldn't be affected in the short-term. How long 'short-term' is will be TBD and I don't know if there's any impact to staffing.

I'm not sure of the technicalities in Amtrak's case but there are a handful of agencies that can operate off reserve funds anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportat...ent-shuts-down

This is good news. Thank you both!

Talked to a Capitol Corridor conductor this morning. He said Amtrak is funding ops until the 16th. They're expecting emergency funding legislation (I presume from CA) to fund ops after the 16th if necessary.

Well, that gives some meaning to the term "short term" used by corporate. Somewhat shorter than I would have thought...

Yes, Amtrak is operating. However, some trains may experience delays.

The conductor is confusing two things. The 16th is when Amtrak will stop running selected California services if the State and it's organizations don't reach agreements with Amtrak to fund the State sponsored services. As of October 1st, every State with an Amtrak train that runs fewer than 750 miles must fully fund the service; not the Fed. Last I had heard, only 1 of CA's services had reached an agreement with Amtrak. The other two are still haggling.

Those services will be shut down on the 16th, without regard to what happens with the Fed, if CA & agencies don't reach an agreement with Amtrak.

But the 16th has absolutely nothing to do with Amtrak shutting down because of the Federal shutdown. My guess, and I stress that, is that Amtrak could probably make it to the end of the year before a continued impasse in Congress would force Amtrak to start curtailing service. Somehow I don't think, and I certainly hope, that the current Federal impasse will be solved long before the end of the year.

Regarding the signing if state contracts, Amtrak has stated that services for states without agreements will continue as long as negotiations are in progress. October 16 is not a hard deadline.