Vermont marking return of Amtrak service after COVID

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Celebrations were held at Amtrak stations across Vermont on Monday to mark the return of passenger rail service to the state.

Both the Vermonter train and the Ethan Allen Express resume passenger service on Monday. The service was suspended last year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amtrak offered $1 fares at each Vermont station to include Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, Windsor, White River Junction, Randolph, Montpelier, Waterbury, Essex Junction and St. Albans.

The Vermonter train runs between New York City and St. Albans. The Ethan Allen Express runs between Rutland and New York.

The southbound Vermonter was a few minutes late when it arrived in Montpelier on Monday. There were scores of people there waiting for it getting ice cream from a food truck and listening to a band that was set up under a tent.

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NUMBERS

On Monday the Vermont Department of Health reported 12 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to just under 24,580.

There were two people hospitalized with one in intensive care.

The state reported one additional death from COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to 259.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont has risen over the past two weeks from 3.86 new cases per day on July 3 to 13.29 new cases per day on July 17.

The Associated Press is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States.

The Associated Press