Amtrak Service in Indiana

[NapTown Jim]

Hi I'm new here, I'm also a railfan. I've rode Amtrak only once before, the Lake Shore Limited from South Bend to New York City. I had a good time on that trip, although I didn't sleep to well on those coach seats.

Anyway....I'm wondering if anyone had suggestions, petitions or whatever on how to improve Amtrak's service in Indianapolis. We presently get the Cardinal/Hoosier State going north to Chicago once very early in the morning and returning once very late at night. An additional train going to and from Chicago in the middle of the day plus more/better service to Cincinnati would be great. Service east to Columbus, OH south to Louisville, KY and west to St. Louis, MO would also be on my wish list.

Whose cage do we have to rattle to make that happen?

 

[racer1735]

I certainly don't have ALL the answers, but Indianapolis is saddled with the arrival/departure times which it has basically due to the need to have the Cardinal/Hoosier State arrive mid-morning in Chicago, as well as leave early evening from Chicago. That's how Amtrak tries to schedule connections in and out of Chicago....arrivals come in during the morning and depart in the late afternoon/evening. Regarding service to Louisville, at one time the Cardinal actual had a leg extend to Louisville, but as I recall ridership was abysmal. As for new service elsewhere, that would take an act of Congress (literally).

 

[NapTown Jim]

I certainly don't have ALL the answers, but Indianapolis is saddled with the arrival/departure times which it has basically due to the need to have the Cardinal/Hoosier State arrive mid-morning in Chicago, as well as leave early evening from Chicago. That's how Amtrak tries to schedule connections in and out of Chicago....arrivals come in during the morning and depart in the late afternoon/evening. Regarding service to Louisville, at one time the Cardinal actual had a leg extend to Louisville, but as I recall ridership was abysmal. As for new service elsewhere, that would take an act of Congress (literally).

I had hoped that the extra service between Indy, Cinci & Chicago would enhance travel between these cities. For example....I think it would be cool to ride the train up to Lafayette for a Purdue football game and back again. Call it the "Boilermaker Special" or something like that.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Or the State of Indiana, if they wanted to cough up the dough.

 

[John Bredin]

Or the State of Indiana, if they wanted to cough up the dough.

Seconded. That's how we* got additional trains in Illinois a couple of years back, by lobbying the State legislature. Of course, we had three big things in our favor, so that we weren't just another bunch of pests hanging around the Capitol.

1) The relevant unions saw that additional trains would mean additional Amtrak employees needed, which would mean more union jobs.

2) The chamber of commerce/tourism board types in several communities served by the existing trains saw that even more people would visit their towns, and more of their people would be able to travel to Chicago and beyond, with additional trains.

3) The existing trains were heavily used by college students (UofI at Urbana-Champaign, ISU at Bloomington, SIU at Carbondale, WIU at Macomb, and various colleges at Springfield, Quincy, Galesburg).

Therefore, when the Assembly held hearings on our bill, it wasn't just some railfans who testified but the mayors and prominent businessmen from various towns and even small cities, the presidents of major (for Illinois) universities, and union leaders.

In short, you've gotta build a coalition. And the best place to get such a coalition going is where the existing trains (Cardinal and Hoosier State) already serve; that is, for a second daily train "opposite" the Cardinal/Hoosier State so people can day-trip from Chicago to Indianapolis, etc. rather than just Indy, etc. to Chicago as now. This has the additional selling point that the stations are already there so the expense will not be as high as if you are starting passenger service on a line that has none.

If you can get the State to sponsor more train service on the existing route, you will find that chamber-of-commerce types in towns without rail service, who aren't saying diddly now, will come out of the woodwork pushing for service to their town. In Illinois, proposals for service to the Quad Cities and to Rockford and Galena have languished for years, but have become very prominent since the 2006 service increase, even though those additional trains go nowhere near the Quad Cities, Rockford, or Galena.

I understand the politics of Indiana don't favor State sponsorship of trains, while Illinois was already sponsoring trains when we asked them to add more. Still, that doesn't mean it's an unwinnable fight, just a difficult one.

*Midwest High Speed Rail Ass'n, of which I'm a member.