Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Amtrak announced January 24, that it is temporarily suspending various services as COVID-19 grows amongst its workforce. “The cuts are due to staffing challenges brought on by the...pandemic,” Amtrak Media Relations spokesperson Kimberly Woods said. “While nearly 97 percent of Amtrak employees are fully vaccinated, several hundred of our onboard service personnel, conductors, engineers and mechanical crews continue to be impacted by COVID infections or exposures, particularly given the highly infectious nature of the new variant and the prevalence of breakthrough cases,” she said. Some Empire Service and Lake Shore Limited trains will no longer be running, according to a statement released by the railroad. Trains 234 and 256 from Albany-Rensselaer and trains 241 and 261 from New York City are suspended on the Empire Service line. Trains 49, 449, 48 and 448 of the Lake Shore Limited are being suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday. Amtrak is suspending eight percent of its train departures over the next 10 weeks. They are also working to fill vacant positions and train new employees to avoid staffing shortfalls that are a result of unplanned absences, Woods said. She said as overall staffing and equipment availability levels improve, Amtrak will restore service levels as quickly as possible. Right now, Amtrak is planning to resume the suspended services by late March and early April. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.