US Train Service Amtrak Drops Vax Mandate Due to Expected Staffing Shortfall

Matt Lamb : Dec 15, 2021
LifeSiteNews.com

...Joe Biden loves to talk about riding the Amtrak train back and forth from Delaware. But the quasi-governmental entity is not on board with his vaccine mandate.

(Washington, DC) — [LifeSiteNews.com] National railroad transportation company Amtrak announced that it has suspended its employee vaccine mandate until January due to a potential reduction in service. (Image: Pixabay)

The company, which is fully owned by the federal government but is legally a for-profit organization, is a favorite of ...Joe Biden. It recently received $22 billion in extra funding through an infrastructure bill, despite its ridership being at 70% of pre-lockdown levels.

"Amtrak Chief Executive Bill Flynn said the railroad would allow employees who were not vaccinated to get tested," Reuters reported. "Currently, fewer than 500 active Amtrak employees are not in compliance."

Yet, the firing or suspension of those employees was enough to cause concern about a loss of service according to the train company's recent Congressional testimony.

"We anticipate proactively needing to temporarily reduce some train frequencies across our network in January to avoid staffing related cancellations with our plan to fully restore all frequencies by March," Amtrak President Stephen Gardner told the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on December 9.

About 5% of Amtrak's employees were not vaccinated, according to Gardner's testimony.

However, a federal court ruling that halted Biden's vaccine mandate for government contractors also contributed to the decision.

"This caused the company to reevaluate our policy and to address the uncertainty about the federal requirements that apply to Amtrak," the company's memo said, according to Reuters... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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