References to “Climate Change” Removed from Amtrak Strategic Plan

In 2018, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (doing business as Amtrak) published a new five year strategic plan for the period FY2019 to FY2023, in which all references to “climate change” had been removed. The previous version of the strategic plan, covering the period from FY2017 to FY2021, had listed “environment / climate change” as the number one threat to Amtrak’s system. That threat was omitted from the most recent version of the plan, despite a recent study, commissioned by Amtrak, showing that its Northeast Corridor route would be severely impacted by climate change.

A spokesperson for Amtrak said that an “editing error” led to climate change being omitted from the plan. Amtrak has since published an updated version of the plan which again lists “environment / climate change” as a threat to its system.