NARP discount or not, there is still a "hardy bunch" out there riding. The Times sent a reporter and photographer out to hear their stories aboard The Chief:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opin ... d=em-share
Fair Use:
.There are many reasons to travel by train: a fear of heights, lack of official ID, cost, legroom, the desire to watch the landscape meld smoothly without having to stop for gas. During the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses are shuttered, but most of Amtrak’s trains are still open for business.
Some brave travelers continue to use the railroad, deemed an essential service, crossing states with different rules and approaches to containing the spread of the virus. Rather than adhering to individual states’ rules, Amtrak has a blanket policy for its passengers, creating a kind of ministate of its own. Here are a few of the travelers on a route from Chicago to Los Angeles...
Not me, I did make one trip to Florida this past January, and left with my Auto-Train "only if I'm really going its way" again. I've CXD four out of town trips since; four more planned will likely get the same.
This is just a "lost year" for all too many - and for some of us, that lost year is a "mighty big chunk" of our remaining time around these parts.