As the nation continues to hunker down in the face of the pandemic, Amtrak has announced a series of “service modifications” due to reduced travel demand…and one of them is the complete suspension of the Amtrak Pere Marquette train that runs daily from Grand Rapids to Chicago and back, with stops in St. Joseph every day.
Amtrak says that their Midwest network service modifications are effective tomorrow, Thursday, March 19th, in partnership with the Wisconsin, Michigan and Missouri state transportation departments:
- Chicago-Holland-Grand Rapids Pere Marquette daily roundtrips suspended. Amtrak Thruway Bus connections to and from Grand Rapids are available daily via Kalamazoo as an alternative.
- Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha corridor service reduced to four daily roundtrips. Friday evening Hiawatha Train 343 also temporarily suspended.
- Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac Wolverine corridor service reduced to two daily roundtrips.
- No changes to Chicago-East Lansing-Port Huron Blue Water roundtrips or Kansas City-Jefferson City-St. Louis Missouri River Runner corridor services.
Some Amtrak Thruway Bus routes will have service modifications. National messaging regarding COVID-19, including refund information, is posted at this link:
https://www.amtrak.com/coronavirus?intcmp=wsp_promo-card_link_coronavirus-updates_hpcard1
Anyone planning to travel should check their train status on Amtrak.com or the Amtrak smartphone apps prior to departing, allow extra time to get to the station and be extremely careful in stations and on platforms. To be notified of service disruptions, you can follow @AmtrakAlerts on Twitter.
You can also subscribe to automated email or text message notifications if Amtrak trains are behind schedule at specific stations. Notifications can be given for up to six trains and stations by either text or email and delivered whenever you choose – on a single day, every day, or just certain days of the week. You can create a subscription at Amtrak.com/DelayAlerts.
Amtrak regrets any inconvenience. Information is subject to change as conditions warrant.
