Passenger Trains > Good PR for Amtrak in Cincinnati

Last night on Sports Talk, a popular radio show on 700WLW am out of Cincinnati hosted by Andy Furman, was talking about a group of passengers including Furman who traveled to New York to watch the recent Mets/Reds baseball games. The group took Amtrak's Cardinal. The tour was arranged by Provident Travel, a local travel agency. The host sounded very impressed with Amtrak despite the poor schedule and lack of daily service. Many callers called in, not even knowing Amtrak still served the 2 million population of Greater Cincinnati.

Even better, toward the end, Mr Furman spent the last 30 minutes or so encouraging Cincinnati city officials to work with Amtrak to restore service in the Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland corridor. Sports Talk is listened to by many Reds officials and Cincinnatians. Furman invited callers to call in and ask if they were interested in getting future groups together for Amtrak trips to watch the Reds road games.

Strangely 700WLW is an Conservative station, but many of it's recent promotions have included Amtrak ticket giveaways.

Glad to hear that your announcer is spreading the news about Amtrak. Wish Amtrak would do more of that themselves. The Cardinal is certainly a train that could do with a schedule redesign if Amtrak makes changes this fall. Seems to me, the Capitol and Lakeshore handle the NY/DC to Chicago market. the Cardinal should be 2 trains with upgraded superliner dining/lounge and business class service. A 9am departure from DC (connection from the night train from Boston) would have it into all the WV cities by dinner time - to keep Senator Bryd happy and for all to enjoy the scenery - with a still decent 11pm into Cinci.

It could continue as an overnight train to Chicago. Or, it could return to DC the next morning with a separate Cinci to Chicago daytime train with similar equipment. Not sure where the train could lay over in Cinci - is there still a stub track under CUT? If a separate Chicago train, it could continue on to Louisville on the L&N and turn back there since the Chicago to Cinci portion is only about 8 hours. In any case the train should be operating daily. I favor the 2 trains if for no other reason than it would depart Chicago, CUT and Wahsington on time.

By the way, I'll bet there are more conservatives that support Amtrak than you might think. I certainly put myself in that category and I know that our senior Senator, Lindsey Graham(R) also is a supporter.

The Cardinal could go to 4-days a week without any more equipment.
I think a Three Rivers restoration, or a 2nd Pennsylvanian with through coaches on the Capitol, ought to take precedence. NYP-CHI in 27 hours is not sellable.

I agree 27 hours is not sellable (even though the sleeper is often sold out). That's why it should serve two markets well rather than one poorly. Cincinati to Chicago and Cincinnati/WV to Washington on good schedules would increase ridership and free up viewliner cars.

Where's the Amtrak Sales & Marketing department? They should have been working heavily on this market for years and not wait for a radio broadcaster do their job. Amtrak should have allocated a great amount of funds for Field-Marketing and Sales instead of spending tons of money on various paint schemes over the years.

Perhaps the Amtrak subsidy needs could have been allot smaller if Amtrak had a strong marketing presence through out. I think of Florida and how Amtrak could have captured that market over 20 years ago with serious marketing.

Today you could have had at least four daily Florida New York/Chicago services as well short haul intra-state routes.

Why not truncate the Cardinal to Washington, and create a second train Chicago-New York through Cinci. This second train could runs on the days the Cardinal doesn't. This gives Cincinatti daily service to and from Chicago.

DanV Wrote:
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> Perhaps the Amtrak subsidy needs could have been
> allot smaller if Amtrak had a strong marketing
> presence through out. I think of Florida and how
> Amtrak could have captured that market over 20
> years ago with serious marketing.
>
> Today you could have had at least four daily
> Florida New York/Chicago services as well short
> haul intra-state routes.

If it is true that Amtrak loses money on each passenger outside the NEC, more service and more passengers would increase the need for subsidies.

< If it is true that Amtrak loses money on each passenger outside the NEC, more service and more passengers would increase the need for subsidies.>

They "lose" money on every passenger MILE everwhere except Acela because farebox recovery is not 100%. The idea is to add revenue without a large impact on cost, like increased capacity and freqency on existing trains and routes so that overhead costs don't rise.

palmland Wrote:
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>
> By the way, I'll bet there are more conservatives
> that support Amtrak than you might think. I
> certainly put myself in that category and I know
> that our senior Senator, Lindsey Graham(R) also is
> a supporter.

Many conservatives agree with the premise that by failing to invest in a sensible ground passenger transportation system we are opening our country up to a severe economic crisis and squandering finite fossil fuels on over-reliance on air travel for domestic transportation. However,most conservatives, and most liberals, are just not looking far enough down the road to realize this.

I thought he was on a few PV's chartered on the rear of Amtrak for the trips through Cincinnati Railway / Provident. Naturally, riding the varnish leaves a good impression.

Give Amtrak 5 cent of Gas taxes we pay for gas. Congress was give Amtrak 2 cent of taxes back 1997, but it ever made it just talk in D.C. WE need to Vote all the Congress people out in Nov and fresh Faces in D.C?

The truth is that Amtrak long distance trains (including sleepers) subsidize the NE Corridor

AmRailExc Wrote:
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> The truth is that Amtrak long distance trains
> (including sleepers) subsidize the NE Corridor

The truth is that they all lose money.