Passenger Trains > Amtrak’s Hoosier State ignored by Senate, too, prospects fade.

https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/04/16/amtraks-hoosier-state-ignored-senate-too-prospects-fade-save-line/3482102002/

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – There was no last-minute reprieve in the Indiana Senate Tuesday night to save Amtrak’s Hoosier State line, which stops four days a week in downtown Lafayette, going between Indianapolis and Chicago.

See link if you need more details... This Hospital Trains is about to get taken off Life Support...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/19 16:05 by PC1974.

The Cardinal will be the "hospital" train now. Unless Amtrak runs one as extra once in a while..

Say bye-bye. 50/51 will probably be the next to go???

    Ross Rowland

Don't count on it. Everyone loves to say every few years that the Cardinal will be next. I would be willing to bet money that 50/51 will be around in some form for a long while..That is as long as there is a ld network...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/19 16:33 by chess.

co614 Wrote:
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> Say bye-bye. 50/51 will probably be the next to
> go???
>
>     Ross Rowland

Apples and oranges. Hoosier State is a state supported train. The Cardinal is an Amtrak long distance network train.
Totally different funding.

Be nice if the Cardinal was daily though, gonna be interesting how this turns out now after June 30!

Still bad financially for the Cardinal.

The Indy - Chicago market will decline percentage-wise more than the frequencies are cut. Same day round trips by train on Mondays and Tuesdays become impossible.

Whatever fixed costs that are assigned to the Hoosier will now all be dumped on the Cardinal.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/19 08:41 by joemvcnj.

Amtrak sent a response out to the news article. The Hoosier State departed 36 civilized minutes late this evening. Poor losers?

I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why Indiana should pay for an interstate route and why Indiana does not deserve daily service across the state for free while many other states do.

Doesn't Indiana get two "free" trains across the state every day, the Lake Shore and the Cap Limited?

co614 Wrote:
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> Say bye-bye. 50/51 will probably be the next to
> go???
>
>     Ross Rowland

Coming in behind the Auto-Train and the Palmetto, 50/51 usually have the lowest annual cash operating loss of any long distance train in the system. I doubt the service will ever be the first on the chopping block. However, picking up the fully allocated costs of the Beech Gove equipment moves, the IND station, and the Indy crew base will probably hurt the train's preformace going forward. 

abyler Wrote:
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> I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why
> Indiana should pay for an interstate route

Yes, that is a very good question.

Posted from Android

It runs under 750 miles, excepting of course the BOS-WAS spine of the NEC. Crossing state lines in not a factor in PRIIA 209. 

I do think $3.5 million for a quad-weekly, 196 mile train is way out of line. I believe the Pennsylvanian west of Harrisburg is about $3.9 million. That train is daily for 249 miles. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/19 04:38 by joemvcnj.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It runs under 750 miles, excepting of course the
> BOS-WAS spine of the NEC. Crossing state lines in
> not a factor in PRIIA 209. 
>
> I do think $3.5 million for a quad-weekly, 196
> mile train is way out of line. I believe the
> Pennsylvanian west of Harrisburg is about $3.9
> million. That train is daily for 249 miles. 

We all know the law. That doesn't explain why it makes sense (or doesn't).

Posted from Android

That's the law, like it or not, and it won't change any time soon. Deal with it. But it does make Amtrak's corridor-only mentality look rather silly. Their talk is cheap when they need provide no skin in the game. Same goes for the proposed Duluth service. 

I'm sure that 50 and 51 will continue to operate for a while, even if 850 and 851 are discontinued. People use 50 and 51 to travel between many different city pairs. There are probably plenty of people who use the Cardinals to travel from West Virginia to Chicago but I could be wrong about that. I don't know if many people use the Cardinal to travel from many of the Northeastern Cities to Chicago.

I always booked the Hospital Train.  It left Indy on time.  The Cardinal no too often.

P Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It runs under 750 miles, excepting of course
> the
> > BOS-WAS spine of the NEC. Crossing state lines
> in
> > not a factor in PRIIA 209. 
> >
> > I do think $3.5 million for a quad-weekly, 196
> > mile train is way out of line. I believe the
> > Pennsylvanian west of Harrisburg is about $3.9
> > million. That train is daily for 249 miles. 
>
> We all know the law. That doesn't explain why it
> makes sense (or doesn't).
>
> Posted from Android

My recollection is Amtrak initiallt demanded $7.5 million to continue the Pennsylvanian west of Harrisburg.

After much back and forth, they settled for about half that amount.  There's a lot of flexibility in their numbers and offers

I’d like to be serious but it’s hard to be when we all know where Amtrak pulls their numbers from. How do you negotiate with a mob type managed organization? Our number one goal has to be new management and new true accounting practices that treats all trains equal.

Flyer92122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’d like to be serious but it’s hard to be
> when we all know where Amtrak pulls their numbers
> from. How do you negotiate with a mob type managed
> organization? Our number one goal has to be new
> management and new true accounting practices that
> treats all trains equal.

Equally by passengers carried, train miles travelled, passenger miles travelled, share of fixed costs like commissary and shops, share of (high) overhead costs like law, executive, government relations, etc?

If you don't trust or understand the metrics, no sane person will believe the results claimed.