Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, has ended support for its app on Windows phones. An internal memo found by WindowsCentral shows that the company planned to remove its app and disable all support for it by turning off the backend servers.
The memo explained the reasons for the removal, blaming the low number of Amtrak customers who use the app:
Due to low levels of use by customers, Amtrak has decided to shutdown the Windows Phone version of the mobile app. Launched in December 2013, the app was well received by customers but the Windows Phone platform itself has not gained traction and is used by less than 1% of Amtrak customers.
The app will be removed from the Microsoft Marketplace on Saturday, August 13, 2016 and server support disabled on Sunday, August 14, 2016. Customers using Windows Phones who attempt to use the app to check train status, search for available tickets or login to their accounts will receive a message informing them that support has ended and to visit Amtak.com (accessible through the browser on the phone). All functionality available through the app is available through the mobile version of Amtrak.com.
The iPhone and Android versions of the mobile app will of course continue to be supported.
For many, it appears the loss of Amtrak isn’t a huge issue. The app hasn’t been updated for a long time and has many long-standing issues, which may actually be the reason for the low usage of the app in the first place. Nonetheless, the company believes that any customers it has on the Windows phone platform will be fine using their website.
