Despite a recent increase in ridership, passenger numbers for the Amtrak Missouri River Runner train service are still sharply down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 3,500 passengers on the River Runner service in June, according to preliminary numbers provided by Bryan Ross, Missouri Department of Transportation railroad operations manager.
That's down from 8,862 passengers in June 2019, when there were several cancellations due to flooding.
"By mid-April this year, we were down 95 percent of normal passenger numbers," Ross said. "We have been increasing since then, and now it's down 75 percent."
In late March, Amtrak went from two round-trip cross-state passenger trains a day to one round trip per day in Missouri.
Train 314 goes from Kansas City to St. Louis. It departs from Kansas City at 8:15 a.m., departs from Jefferson City at 11:18 a.m. and arrives in St. Louis at 1:55 p.m.
Train 313 goes from St. Louis to Kansas City. It departs from St. Louis at 4 p.m., departs from Jefferson City at 6:22 p.m. and arrives in Kansas City at 9:40 p.m.
Ross said there has been no word from Amtrak on when they might resume running two round-trip trains.
Normally in June, they would have 13,000-14000 passengers, Ross said. That's with no weather issues and two round-trip trains.
So far, through the end of May, the River Runner service has had 28,928 total riders. In 2018, when they had no significant weather or service issues, the route had 63,181 passengers during the first five months of the year, Ross said.
Figures for the Jefferson City Amtrak station showed 364 passengers came through in April and 621 in May.
The Jefferson City station at Jefferson Landing has stayed open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Ross said. Five stations along the River Runner line did close temporarily, but now, all stations have reopened.
Amtrak has been keeping train capacity less than 50 percent during the pandemic to allow passengers to maintain space between themselves and others.
This week, Amtrak added a fourth coach car to the River Runner trains to open even more seating and continue allowing for social distancing. A third coach was added in June. Normally, the trains run with two coaches and a cafe car, which also has seats for business passengers.
Amtrak is requiring passengers to wear face masks as they board and exit the train and while they move about the train, Ross said.
Amtrak is continuing to waive change fees and cancellations on all existing and new reservations made before Aug. 31. Reservations can be made at Amtrak.com or via the Amtrak app.
"We started our fiscal year July 1, 2019, $6 million in arrears to Amtrak," he said. "We finished the fiscal year June 30, 2020, a little more than $8 million in arrears to Amtrak."
The Missouri Legislature passed an $8 million appropriation for the passenger rail service, and Gov. Mike Parson signed that legislation. That amount was reduced from the normal $9.1 million the service had been getting, Ross said.
Despite the current financial situation, Ross said Amtrak has not indicated any changes in how it would run the service as long as it continues to get support from the Legislature.