Out of service

Amtrak, the Acela corridor, N95 masks, a lot of unsubscribes, and 7 other things worth your time.

A lot of things are on the brink right now. Amtrak might be one of them.

Last week, ridership of the Acela, the comparatively high-speed train that runs from Boston through New York to Washington, was at just 1 percent.

As of Sunday, it’s shut down. Not a surprise.

Actually, what is surprising is that some non-Acela trains are in fact still running, as I’m not sure who’s riding them. Now, the railroad itself is “on the bring of financial calamity,” according to The Wall Street Journal ($).

On a conference call Friday, Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said Amtrak will need a $1 billion bailout from the federal government to have any chance of continuing.

Tiny compared to what the airlines want, of course, and the Journal reports that the Amtrak money was included in the coronavirus bailout bill currently pending in Congress.

Although, I should hasten to add that the bill itself was completely up in the air as of when I wrote this last night.