It’s the afternoon of Sept. 1, 1996, and Amtrak’s eastbound California Zephyr is arriving in the station in Naperville, Illinois.
A pair of F40PH locomotives are pulling No. 6 today, but that won’t be the case much longer.
Naperville is the last stop before Chicago Union Station.
Although Amtrak is a major player in Naperville with eight trains daily, most of the passengers who board and disembark here are riding Metra as they commute to work or for other purposes.
A settlement has been reached in a case involving three companies that were alleged to have engaged in bid rigging and inflated invoices for work performed by Amtrak.
The $466,500 settlement was announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and involved a Michigan-based electric company and two construction firms.
The bid rigging had been discovered by the Amtrak Office of Inspector General.
The firms involved were Tooles Contracting Group LLC, Commercial Contracting Corp., G&B Electric
In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s office said those companies along with G&B President James Gierlach agreed to pay the settlement to resolve allegations that Gierlach, G&B Electric and Tooles engaged in bid rigging and inflating invoices for work performed for Amtrak
The work involved improving accessibility at Amtrak stations in Hammond, Louisiana; Beaumont and Alpine, Texas; and Little Rock, Arkansas.
A New York tourist railroad has acquired a former Amtrak dining car.
The Adirondack Scenic Railroad has received a Heritage fleet diner that was once New York Central lounge car No. 463.
Railroad officials said that car would have traveled through Utica, New York, where the ASR is based, and perhaps traveled over ASR tracks to Lake Placid, New York.
Amtrak agreed to donate the car to the ASR because of its history. Several other railroads were also interested in acquiring the car.
The car is expected to arrive on the ASR sometime in May.
In an effort to get more people to ride public transportation, the American Public Transportation Association launched an awareness campaign known as National Get on Board Day.
APTA described its as an education and awareness campaign aimed at emphasizing the significance of public transportation in local communities.
In a news release, APTA said more than 200 public transit agencies hosted activities, events and promotions to highlight the benefits of taking the bus or train.
Among the benefits, APTA said, is saving $837 a month by the average household using public transportation and using just one car.
Surveys have found that about 34 million people take public transportation daily. Although 77 percent of respondents described public transportation as the backbone of a mobile lifestyle just 50 percent said they had access to frequent public transportation service.
APTA said public transportation systems have more than $232 billion in critical projects in need of investment that would stimulate a 4-to-1 return of $928 million in economic activity over the next 20 years.
There have been times during the nearly 48 years of Amtrak’s existence when significant changes occurred. October 1979 was one of them.
The tenor of those times is shown by the covers of two timetables Amtrak issued that month.
Early in the month Amtrak discontinued several trains and routes, including the National Limited, Floridian, North Coast Hiawatha, Lone Star, Hilltopper, and Champion.
Discontinuance of those six trains had been in the works for some time.
Although the trains in question were to begin their last trips on Sept. 30 a few trains continued to operate for several days in early October under court orders before being discontinued.
Later that month, Amtrak assigned new Superliner equipment to the Empire Builder and instituted a new train between Los Angeles and Ogden, Utah, known as the Desert Wind; and created a Houston leg of the Inter-American.
The timetables featured muted colors printed on newsprint. No four-color glossy covers and slick paper as had been the practice for much of the 1970s.
This subdued style had been the practice in the previous couple of years, probably a reflection of the period of austerity that Amtrak was in.
As massive as the train discontinuances of 1979 were, they could have been worse. A U.S. Department of Transportation report issued in January 1979 called for ending even more trains, but they were saved due to political wrangling in Congress.
The late 1970s were also a time of transition between the streamliner era equipment that Amtrak inherited when it was formed in 1971 and new equipment that began service in the middle of the decade.
That transition is reflected on the cover of the Oct. 28 timetable in which Amtrak tries to establish a continuous onward march of progress dating back to the introduction of the Metroliners by Penn Central.
By contrast, the cover of the timetable issued on Oct. 1 took a more pragmatic approach of announcing changes without giving much, if any, indication of how widespread they were.
Amtrak was using a traditional public relations strategy of seeking to put a positive face on a situation many viewed as adverse.
The bottom text refers to the fact that some routes or portions of routes were being saved through state funding. This affected the San Joquin in California and a portion of the National Limited route in Missouri.
Contrary to the impression created by the late October timetable, Superliner equipment was not being introduced that month.
Superliner coaches had gone into service early in the year on some Midwest corridor trains on a temporary basis.
The Empire Builder would be the first train to permanently get the equipment.
In the wake of the Indiana legislature’s decision to cease funding the Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State, Amtrak is hinting that it may lay off workers at its Beech Grove shops in suburban Indianapolis.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said 500 jobs at Beech Grove could be a risk if Amtrak is only able to shuttle equipment to and from the shops on the three days a week that the Cardinal operates through Indianapolis.
The Indiana General Assembly on the recommendation of Gov. Eric Holcomb declined to renew the $3 million annual funding the state has been providing to Amtrak to operate the Hoosier State four days a week.
The legislature finalized the budget for the next two years earlier this week.
The Cardinal operates three days a week between Chicago and New York and serves all stations at which the Hoosier State stops.
However, an Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman defended ending Hoosier State funding.
“The Hoosier State has the lowest ridership and highest taxpayer subsidy per ticket sold of all Amtrak state sponsored routes,” said Scott Manning. “Today, ridership is stagnant. As a result of the low number of users, INDOT and local governments subsidize about 75 percent of the cost of each ticket sold on the Hoosier State. This does not represent a good value to Hoosier taxpayers.”
State funding of the Hoosier State will end on June 30. The train also receives $500,000 annually contributed by communities that it serves.
Amtrak earlier announced the Hoosier State will be suspended on July 1.
WISH-TV in Indianapolis quoted Beech Grove employee Danny Groves as saying that once the Hoosier State ends much of the shop’s work load will go away.
“Beech Grove was built around this [rail] yard. We know each other’s wives. We know each other’s families,” Groves said. “If this happens we’ll only be able to get equipment in three days a week.”
More than 400 people signed a petition asking the legislature to reconsider its decision to end funding of the Hoosier State.
Amtrak has faced before the situation that it is poised to have if the Hoosier State is discontinued.
In September 1995, the Hoosier State was eliminated in a route restructuring, leaving the tri-weekly Cardinal as Amtrak’s only service to Indianapolis.
It ferried equipment to and from Beech Grove via the Cardinal, which has operated as a tri-weekly train since January 1982.
Amtrak has also used a weekly “hospital” trains to move equipment between Chicago and Beech Grove.
But that train was subject to delay on host railroad CSX and crews sometimes had to halt due to having reached their limits under the federal hours of service law.
Amtrak cited delays to the Cardinal from switching equipment in and out in Indianapolis for resurrecting the Hoosier State in July 1998.
One difference between then and now is that a federal law adopted since then now makes state and local governments responsible for paying most of the costs of trains operating less than 750 miles.
That law precludes Amtrak assuming full funding of the Hoosier State.
But Beech Grove’s future at Amtrak was already tenuous before the Indiana legislature declined to continue funding it.
During a Congressional hearing in February Amtrak President Richard Anderson said that although Amtrak had no plans to close Beech Grove or reduce its workforce, its role at Amtrak was subject to change.
“Over time, we have to re-fleet the Amtrak rolling stock,” Anderson said, “. . . and over the longer term we have to figure out where we are going to do our maintenance work. I think the footprint is going to change over time because we’re moving to more modern equipment.”
Efforts this week to save funding of Amtrak’s Hoosier State fell short when the Indiana General Assembly approved a two-year budget that does not include continued funding of the train.
The legislature approved a $34 billion budget on Wednesday night that did not include funding for the quad-weekly Chicago-Indianapolis train.
The state’s $3 million annual funding of the Hoosier State will end on June 30.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Sen. Ron Alting, of Lafayette Republican who said he had worked in the closing weeks with three other legislators whose districts are served by the train to find continued funding for it.
“I thought it was a small amount of money in a $34 billion budget, quite honestly,” Alting told the Lafayette Journal & Courier. “But the Hoosier State wasn’t in (Gov. Eric Holcomb’s) budget, and it wasn’t in the House version of the budget. So that was hard to overcome, at the end of the day. We gave it a 100 percent effort.”
One local official involved in the efforts to save the Hoosier State offered a glimmer of hope that an alternative funding source might be available.
“Oddly, there’s more funding for bringing a train back than for preserving one, which is totally backward,” said Arvid Olson, head of Greater Lafayette Commerce’s transportation committee. “Smart heads are working toward that right now.”
“If this, according to Gov. Holcomb, isn’t working, which is a valid thing to say, what will it take to make passenger rail work here?” Olson said.
Olson said that might mean such things as having the train make additional stops or the even the possibility of having a private operator take it over.
He cited the case of Richard Branson – owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Hotels, and Virgin Galactic – buying the Brightline intercity rail line in Florida.
In addition to state funding, the Hoosier State also received $500,000 annually from local governments served by the train.
The Hoosier State is slated to make its last trips on Sunday, June 30. Amtrak has also ready given notice that it will be “suspended” the next day.
“We’re open to any continued discussions with the state and the communities,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said about preserving the Hoosier State.
However, Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Manning said the state legislature having decided not to continue funding the train there is no state budget mechanism to continue funding beyond June 30.
“If the service were to continue beyond that date, it would need to be without state funding,” Manning said.
State officials have been saying since early this year that the Hoosier State’s ridership has been disappointing. INDOT said ridership fell in each of the past four years.
In fiscal year 2014 the Hoosier State carried 33,930. That had fallen to 27,876 by FY 2018.
Olson said Lafayette area leaders have been careful to avoid being too critical of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decision to end funding for the Hoosier State, “because he was making a good point.”
Although the Indiana Passenger Rail Alliance sought to drum up support for continued Hoosier State funding, the group’s president said he knew that was a long shot.
“Most likely, it’s going away, but for how long it will be gone is an interesting question,” said Steve Coxhead. “I think the battle is far from over, though. We know there are other ways, and we’ll be looking at them. If nothing else, the state opens a new budget cycle in two years. We have to be prepared to go the distance, if it goes that far.”
House speaker Brian Bosma said he would have “loved” for the Hoosier State to have worked, “but it’s just a subsidy that doesn’t appear to be taking hold.”
Magliari said the underlying problem that the Hoosier State faced was a slow schedule that was not competitive with the Chicago-Indianapolis drive time.
Coxhead described that as a “kind of a catch-22” in that slow service and low ridership led to funding cuts for a service that was initially under-funded.
“The governor says ridership has been disappointing, and we make the case that you have to have at least two trains in each direction each day, possibly three, in order to have a realistic chance of generating enough ridership to cover an operating cost,” Coxhead said.
Amtrak announced this week that it will offer deep discounts for group travel on many of its trains.
The fares can be used aboard Northeast Regional trains between Washington and Boston, and on most national network trains. They are not valid for travel on Acela Express or the Auto Train.
The Share Fares provide for discounts for up to three passengers when groups of two to four travel together. The group must buy its tickets at least three days in advance of travel.
Under terms of the program, one passenger must pay the full fare for travel. A second passenger received a discount of 15 percent while a third passengers gets a 60 percent discount.
A fourth passenger will receive a 70 percent discount. Fares are one-way for adults and no additional discount can be applied.
More information is available at https://www.amtrak.com/sharefares
Amtrak said that its plans to increase weekend Acela Express service will result in schedule changes on April 29 for some Acela service.
In a service advisory, the carrier said that Train 82 will depart 15 minutes later from New York and arrive four minutes later into Boston.
Train 2164 will depart four minutes earlier from Providence and arrive five minutes earlier into Boston.
Train 2218 will operate on Saturdays only in place of cancelled Train 2220, departing Washington at 2:50 p.m. Trains 2252 and 2255 will operate Saturdays and Sundays.
Amtrak in the Heartland 
Victim of the Rules?
April 29, 2019When I first read a news story that broke recently about Amtrak putting a teenager off a train in Michigan because her being aboard violated Amtrak rules, I was outraged.
The story was disseminated by a Grand Rapids TV station on its website under the headline “Amtrak Strands 13-year-old in Battle Creek.”
But the more facts that I learned about the case the more I realized the passenger carrier was not necessarily being the cold-hearted monster some might think.
The incident began when the 13-year girl from Lapeer, Michigan, boarded the Chicago-bound Blue Water by herself for a trip to visit an uncle in Chicago.
Things were going fine until another passenger asked her how old she was. A conductor asked her the same question.
“The conductor came over and asked my age and I said ‘13’ and he said I was too young to be on the train alone,” the girl told the TV station. “I explained that my uncle was going to pick me up [in Chicago] and they still said that I had to get off.”
Amtrak requires unaccompanied minors between ages 13 and 15 to board at a staffed station and obtain a wristband to wear for the duration of their trip.
Lapeer, though, is an unstaffed station as are most stations served by the Blue Water.
The girl’s mother told WOOD-TV she did some online research and believed her daughter could ride Amtrak alone.
Battle Creek police corporal Joe Wilder was dispatched to the station after Amtrak personnel called police to say they needed assistance with a passenger.
The girl had texted her father about how the conductor planned to put her off in Battle Creek but he was unable to get off work to come get her.
He told WOOD-TV that Amtrak could have put his daughter off at Durand or East Lansing, which would have been closer to her home.
Wilder told the TV station that when he arrived at the station he asked the ticket agent what was going on.
“They basically just laughed at me because I said, ‘What are you doing with this child?’ And they just laughed and thought it was a big joke,” he said. “My biggest issue is they drop this child off, they’re responsible. What if something happened to that child? What if I wasn’t here? It seems like this would be a huge lawsuit or big mess, don’t you think?”
Wilder took the girl to the police station and showed her around while she waited for her mother to arrive.
He said the passenger carrier should have contacted her parents to let them know their daughter was being put off the train in Battle Creek.
“They didn’t even call the parents,” Wilder said. “To me, that just doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Maybe not to a police officer, but it makes sense to me, which is not to say that it was the right or best thing to do.
The Amtrak conductor handled the incident by the book. His job is to collect tickets, oversee the operation of the train, and deal with any other situations involving passengers.
He may later have been reminded by a supervisor to do a better job of checking passengers before they board a train to ensure they are not unaccompanied minors.
When he realized he had an unaccompanied minor on board, he simply enforced Amtrak’s rules.
If anything, he probably believes the girl’s parents should have done more to determine the rules before putting her aboard the train by herself.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said as much in an emailed statement to the TV station.
“When someone of that age is traveling alone and outside those procedures, there is no way for our train conductors to know if they are traveling with the permission of their parent or guardian, if they are a runaway or if they are being trafficked,” Magliari said.
“The safest decision was to transfer the child to a police agency, which is what occurred in this case,” he said.
Officer Wilder doesn’t necessarily disagree with that, but he has experience in being called to the Amtrak station for other incidents.
“We don’t have jurisdiction on the train. They have their own police department that’s supposed to be dealing with this, so I’m not really sure why they use us for a dumping ground, but that’s ultimately what they did,” he said.
I understand the officer’s frustration, but wouldn’t necessarily agree with his assertion that Amtrak police should have handled the situation.
The Amtrak police force is small and the nearest Amtrak officer might be hundreds of miles away from where an incident is taking place.
Magliari also said the Amtrak website states that when purchasing a ticket for an unaccompanied minor, parents must book over the phone and cannot book online.
Just to see how that works, I went through the process of making a reservation on the Amtrak website for a child age 13-15 traveling from Lapeer to Chicago.
The site automatically booked a reservation for the child and an adult. When I tried to remove the reservation for the adult, a warning in red letters popped up directing me to call Amtrak reservations to make reservations for a youth traveling alone.
It would not allow the reservation process to continue unless at least one additional reservation was made for someone 18 or older to travel at the same time.
The girl’s mother said she had purchased her daughter’s ticket online so it is not clear how she got past the red flags. Maybe she bought an adult ticket for her daughter.
Yes, the girl’s parents should have done this or should have done that. Yet I can understand why they did what they did.
They probably figured their daughter would be safe aboard the train. Her uncle would be waiting for her at Chicago Union Station. It wasn’t like she was hitch hiking or relying on a stranger to give her a ride.
Stories such as these surface somewhat regularly and must cause Amtrak’s PR department to cringe.
These stories don’t make the carrier look good but they probably don’t cause long-term or even short-term harm to Amtrak’s reputation.
Magliari acknowledged that the Lapeer station is not staffed. The nearest staffed Amtrak stations are in Detroit, Dearborn or Ann Arbor.
Those are reasonably close to Lapeer, but there are places where the nearest staff station is hundreds of miles away. A parent wanting to put an unaccompanied teen aboard a train might be out of luck. Travel on Amtrak, it would seem, doesn’t work for everyone.
Tags:Amtrak, Amtrak's Blue Water, children aboard Amtrak, Lapeer Michigan, on transportation, Posts on transportation
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