Wow, hate to say this about any train, but that's kind of ridiculous:
On non-Cardinal days, it's a very short train if there are no deadheads - here's a
Anyhoo, way to go
Ohio Indiana. I wanted to visit relatives in Chicago (on the IC line) and friends in South Indiana (Bloomington, not klansville, mkay?). Indianapolis has a lovely airport. The feds built the state some nice highways, too, and Indiana is furiously spending on upgrading state highways even when they don't need more lanes... er... :unsure:
But try using a train or bus. You have to literally take a train, ambus, or greyhound REDEYE to get from Chicago to Indy, sleep in either downstate IL, Indy (getting in at midnight, if you're lucky),
or on the damned bus. :help: There is a student shuttle to/from Bloomington--
if you're traveling when the college kids are traveling. If not, no dice. (Wrong day of the week? Oopsie.) :angry:
The only functional passenger train of any sort in the state is the blast-from-the-past South Shore [interurban] Line (apologies if I'm flubbing the name) which always blows my mind when it pulls into the station because the ancient equipment makes it look like the ghost train. It still runs despite the state's best attempts to kill it dead.
IL and IN are not that different in terms of climate and geography and the types of industry/agriculture they support, yet IL always feels different, even in the rural parts, as if there's some sort of obscure connection between functioning rail infrastructure and the entire social life of a place.
After flailing around and chasing dead ends I was about to admit defeat and buy plane tickets from O'Hare to Indianapolis, which is ridiculous, but at least I could travel at a reasonable time of day. (I would have spent more time on public transit getting to the airport than in the air.) :wacko:
My Indiana friends finally observed that they'd been looking for an excuse to visit Chicago, so instead they will be driving to join us in IL. So I was all set to spend $$ in Bloomie and Indy and instead some IN residents are going to be dropping (even more as, let's be honest, museum hopping ain't cheap) $$ in Chicago. WAY TO GO, INDIANA. Hope you like the airport! It's so ... nice ... and clean ... and
uncrowded. :mellow: