By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Although it's still well below pre-pandemic levels ridership aboard Amtrak’s Southwest Chief is running ahead of last year's pace.
For the first three months of the 2022 fiscal year 56,400 passengers have boarded the SW Chief. That compares with 22,600 riders in 2021. At that time the train was limited to just three days per week as the pandemic kept passengers at home.
It will remain to be seen how the Chief does on its new limited schedule which is five days per week through March 27. The schedule was reduced due to a shortage of workers.
Since winter is the slow time for the rail passenger carrier the company hopes that the pace will pick up in the spring. At this pace the Chief will take on about 290-thousand passengers for the 2022 fiscal year. That compares with the 338-thousand passengers in 2019.
In 2021 fewer than 3000 passengers boarded the train in Hutchinson, the lowest total among the six stops the Chief makes in Kansas.
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