Amtrak took over passenger rail operations from Burlington Northern (which Great Northern was merged into) on May 1, 1971. The Empire Builder was moved to the former Northern Pacific Railway route between Seattle and Spokane via Stampede Pass, leaving Wenatchee without passenger rail service. On June 13, 1973, Amtrak restored passenger rail service to Wenatchee by moving the tri-weekly North Coast Hiawatha to the Stevens Pass route. During the 1974 World's Fair, hosted in Spokane, Amtrak ran a daytime train along the North Coast Hiawatha route that stopped in Wenatchee and Ephrata. The North Coast Hiawatha was discontinued by Amtrak in October 1979 as part of national cuts to low-performing corridors, blamed in part by poor scheduling and reliability issues.