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Indiana turns to Iowa Pacific for ‘Hoosier State’ route
Another feeding frenzy for the lawyers, for a basic public transportation service. Something seems awry here…maybe INDOT needs to sweeten the pot a bit to get larger players like Keolis involved, who by the way have done a good job so far running MBTA commuter rail (at least on the Greenbush line) since taking over July 1.
perhaps indiana could run a stagecoach between the two cities.
Iowa Pacific has done a good job of running excursions and luxury cars on Amtrak trains. Considering the speed of the Hosier State, maybe amenities would be the draw to make the train succeed. It could even have a dome!
More seriously, the best way to make the service a success is with capital improvements to reduce transit time, multiple frequencies, and extension to Cincinnati and Louisville. If contracting out some service reduces cost and helps the trains’ financial performance, I’m OK with that.
If I am reading the trend correctly, Amtrak is going to die with Congress choking it to death no matter what happens now. Same old stuff. We old guys have seen these jerks before. Cut services, drive away the customers and apply for discontinuations. The old game. Damn the ideology of the stupid. No marketing brains - i.e. “We just want freight.”
However, seeing some of the private folks picking up profitable lines that make economic sense, then I applaud them for taking the risk. I have always felt that air travel would fill the time-travel needs of many…to a point. It is now ridiculous. We are now accepting crap service for what we use to think were cheap fares. In the meantime, we are very happy to put ourselves through the long hassles of security, extra costs (oh yeah, you wanted to take a bag, $35 please). We now have crap service on Amtrak as a result of the idiots in Congress who believe they can micro-manage transportation (whatever their experience may be…olive growers, lawyers, etc…the list of Congressional expertise is endless…but no one, really no one, is a travel person in Congress).
It is false economy to opt for air travel, especially, for business travellers (who are the big spenders on travel). A good business traveller knows how to make the best use of his time. Air travel is often an allusion then. Let us look at this.
For instance, why are we not looking at overnight trip to midtown Chicago in a sleeper be a huge incentive to a business traveler tired of the times to fly the same sector to a remote airport?
For instance, why not return to an overnight Lincoln-Omaha sleeper arriving downtown Chicago in the morning like the old days? Who wants to take the Zephyr from Lincoln or Omaha at 3 or 4am to Chicago on a train that might come on time from San Francisco?
Minneapolis-St Paul to Chicago. Chicago to New Orleans. NYC/Boston overnight remains a pleasant option (great trip). Same for the Capitol from DC. I also happen t
When Iowa Pacific gets involved, things always get interesting. If the new congress doesn’t kill off the whole company one cut at a time, this might work. Already, Mr. Boardman improved service he should have improved anyway because of the threat of another operator.
How much will the employees of Iowa Pacific make. I was shocked to see the very low wages of the train crew (hotel staff) on the Downeaster. People deserve a living wage, and companies should not be taking over Amtrak services based in part on cheap (non living) wages.
I hope Iowa Pacific takes over from Amcrap and succeeds. Anything that puts another nail in the coffin of this government monstrosity is welcome and long over due.
Iowa Pacific has done an excellent job with passenger service and should be an improvement over anything Amtrak has to offer, due in part to the poor attitude of a number of Amtrak employees we’ve run into - and who can’t be fired for lousy service because they’re union, complete with featherbedding. It’s a shame because we’ve also had many excellent employees whose reputation is diminished because of the poor few, something I can’t see happening with Iowa Pacific.
Potentially an outstanding decision that could only benefit the route…dare we even think of expanding it to other cities like Columbus. Iowa Pacific has credibility and that’s an extremely positive attribute for a train that is keenly in need.of it.
never mind. I’m waiting for the Cardinal to go daily, then the problem will be fixed. don’t expect anything more than what you have from Indiana.