Amtrak’s 270 phone-reservations employees in the Loop were told Friday their office will close by year-end to save money, a move others said will cost the bankrupt railroad millions of dollars.
Chicago provided Amtrak with $1.5 million for “operational support” in 1997 as part of a 15-year lease that Amtrak signed for its offices at 55 E. Monroe St. Under the deal, Amtrak agreed to employ at least 250 workers at the downtown reservations center through 2012.
Friday’s long-rumored decision to close the reservations center triggered a buyout clause requiring Amtrak to reimburse the city. Amtrak and city attorneys will negotiate the payback, which one industry official familiar with the contract estimated would be between $900,000 and $1 million.
Amtrak will also incur millions of dollars in other costs, including higher expenses for unemployment insurance compensation, estimated at $4 million; unspecified payments to employees eligible for buyouts; and retooling costs required at Amtrak’s two remaining reservations centers in Philadelphia and Riverside, Calif.
“Where’s the savings?” said James Coston, of the Amtrak Reform Council, a congressionally appointed watchdog group. “Amtrak said it will have to hire additional staff at its other call centers as a result of closing its best office in the country.”
Amtrak said the move will save $1.5 million in fiscal 2004 and $3 million a year starting in 2005, but the beleaguered passenger railroad could be out of business before then. Amtrak president and CEO David Gunn has threatened to start shutting down long-distance routes in the spring if Congress does not provide at least $1.2 billion this year.
An Amtrak reservations staffer at the center described a scene of “extreme emotions and tears” when Matthew Hardison, Amtrak’s chief of sales distribution and customer service, announced the call center’s closing Friday.
“He claimed he was doing us a big favor by telling us early so we have time to get other jobs lined up,” the worker said.
An Amtrak statement issued Friday was vague about a closing date for the Chicago center, saying it would occur “by December.” Amtrak spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon said, “the current plan is to close the call center on Dec. 31.” She said “an undetermined number of jobs will be lost,” although workers who have enough seniority will be able to transfer to other Amtrak jobs.
Chicago officials lashed out at Amtrak for not consulting them about the decision, which was announced days after U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) pressed Gunn to keep the center open.
“The city is disappointed that Amtrak made this decision and especially disappointed they didn’t come to us first to talk about a solution,” said Pete Scales, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. “We still have not been officially notified.”
