Hotline #871-A - April 6, 1995

Amtrak announced the next round of service cuts at noon today. The cuts were decided by the board this week.

The following will take effect June 11:

• The Hoosier State will be cut to tri-weekly.
• The Illini and Illinois Zephyr will be cut to a four-times-a-week, weekend-oriented schedule.
• The Loop and State House will be eliminated.
• The California Zephyr will be cut to four-times-a-week west of Salt Lake City, and run different days than the tri-weekly Desert Wind.
• The City of New Orleans will be cut to five-times-a-week, cutting two weaker mid-week frequencies.

The following will take effect September 10:

• The Broadway Limited will be eliminated. A Keystone Corridor train from New York will be extended from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh in its place. All Broadway points west of Pittsburgh lose their service, unless Ohio pays for the Ravenna Connection, which would allow the Capitol Limited to serve Youngstown. Broadway passengers will have to transfer to the Capitol at Washington or Pittsburgh.
• The Cardinal will be eliminated, replaced by a tri-weekly day train between Washington and Cincinnati only, using Superliner equipment. It will run only on weekends.
• The section of the Texas Eagle between Dallas and Houston will be replaced by a bus between Longview and Houston.

It is possible that Illinois will elect to pay to restore some of its short-distance trains.

Amtrak President Tom Downs reaffirmed his commitment to a national train service. He said that the national network is not disappearing, that now revenues have to be expanded, and that there are no longer big savings to be had by lopping off big pieces of Amtrak. He said that the revenue assumptions made with the first round of service cuts in December are holding so far.

The Amtrak press release mentioned it would consider rerouting the International through Detroit and Windsor, saying there was a greater market potential there. However, in order to preserve Lansing service and serve the new Detroit station, it would have to run over Grand Trunk by way of Durand and Pontiac -- but that would add to the total trip length of what is already a long day trip between Chicago and Toronto. It would end service to Flint and Port Huron.

The Wall Street Journal contained a very negative article on Amtrak this morning. Naturally, subsidies to other modes, the overall desirability of passenger trains, and new Amtrak equipment on order all were ignored.