INDIANAPOLIS — Amtrak will lay off 228 employees today from its Beech Grove maintenance facility — the biggest layoff there in the past decade, reports the Indianapolis Star.
After a week of anticipation, workers were to find out this morning exactly who among them would lose their jobs. Letters were being typed up late Thursday, according to a source at the facility, and will be distributed as workers report to work today.
“Tomorrow (Friday) will be their last day,” said Kathleen Cantillion, an Amtrak spokeswoman. “But they will be getting five days’ pay.”
The layoffs were not unexpected at the facility, which employs 840.
Last week, Amtrak announced $285 million in cutbacks, including 1,000 layoffs nationwide. The financially struggling passenger carrier said the layoffs were necessary because of budget restrictions.
Beech Grove was hit so hard because much of the nationwide cutback is in capital spending, which means orders for new and refurbished rail cars and equipment — the main work performed at Beech Grove — will drop.
Another maintenance facility in Delaware was hit with 178 layoffs. Proportionally, Cantillion said, those layoffs are the same as those at Beech Grove.
Also Thursday, the Amtrak Reform Council recommended Congress break up Amtrak and open its passenger routes to competition. The recommendation will kick off a vigorous debate in Washington over the future of Amtrak and of rail service in America.
Meanwhile, Beech Grove employees can still hold out hope that Congress will come through with a bailout that could result in their return, but Amtrak was offering no promises.
“We can’t speculate on that at all,” said Cantillion. “And we don’t want to make any promises we can’t keep.”
The maintenance facility was established in 1908. At one point, it was the largest employer in Beech Grove, with up to 5,000 employees.