Amtrak is cutting roughly 20% of its top-level management staff in an effort to reduce costs amid uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s plans to invest in infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter.
The national passenger railroad, a for-profit company owned by the federal government, is aiming to shave $100 million in costs, said one of the people, who requested anonymity to disclose figures that aren’t public.
The company in a statement said that it eliminated approximately 450 roles and confirmed that the job cuts, along with other moves, would save the railroad $100 million each year.
Amtrak “identified opportunities to better align resources with the important work we are doing for America,” according to the statement.
The layoffs, which began Tuesday, are only affecting corporate-level jobs, and won’t affect railroad operation roles, the person said. Amtrak employs nearly 22,700 people, the company said in 2024.
“Amtrak is making a full review of our cost structure, which includes evaluating the size of our management staff,” Amtrak President Roger Harris wrote in a letter to employees viewed by Bloomberg.
Leadership plans “to notify impacted employees in the first half of May,” he wrote.
Amtrak has also implemented a hiring freeze for management positions and paused promotions, according to the letter.
The passenger railroad has been planning the cutbacks for months, one of the people said, ever since Trump’s presidential victory and ensuing efforts to withhold previously awarded grants threw the future of infrastructure planning into doubt.
Among the areas affected by this week’s layoffs are an expanded unit within the railroad that was intended to shepherd some of its largest capital investment projects, including new multi-billion-dollar rail tunnels in New York City and Baltimore, a replacement for the Susquehanna River Bridge and other major construction projects along the busy Northeast corridor.
The tunnel and bridge projects are continuing ahead, so far, but some of the future funding Amtrak was counting on is now in doubt – including the expected fifth year of investment from former President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, this person said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
