Story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning.
Services discussed included Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati via Dayton, Cleveland to Detroit via Toledo, and increasing Cardinal service to daily from triweekly. There was a picture in the article of Amfleet cars in Cleveland “in daylight” during a 2007 test of rescheduling the Lake Shore Limited, but it was not clear to me if this is one of the proposed changes.
Apparently the implemented service will not start until at least 2030. Amtrak would subsidize cost for 5 years, for traffic building and acceptance, then Ohio would assume the corridor costs.
I would link the story but it is locked as ‘subscriber only’; if anyone has links to news coverage or discussion, please post them here.
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I used to ride 43 and 44 quite frequently before it was cut short to (NY) Philly to Pittsburgh. I visited friends near Waterloo, In and sometimes would ride all the way to Chicago. There was quite a bit of head-end and Road-Railer equipment on there so that may have offset some operating costs. I sure miss daylight Amtrak service in Cleveland.
Here it is passing through Sebring, Oh. (Alliance) site of the Sebring Model Railroad Club:
Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati? I’ve been hearing about that since I was born (1956). Hello, Ohio X-Plorer? Maybe this article from 2003 has some of the same details? Federal funding? Yeah, sure…
Cheers, Ed
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I’m not sure it’s sounding good right now with Horizons out of service.
Even Amtrak should have resolved the corrosion issues long before 2030!
Having lived in Ohio my entire life, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Kevin
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It would be easy enough to accomplish but without public support for the train I tend to believe it will go the way of Young’s “Chessie” built for a market that never needed it.
I think a Midwest to east coast “Auto train” connection to Florida would attract more interest. Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philly and connect there for Orlando and Miami would be more worth researching in my book.
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I recall there WAS a Louisville to Sanford ‘Auto-Train’ begun in May of '74. As you say, there has to be a market. What didn’t help was the lousy track conditions of the L&N that led to delays and derailments. That really doesn’t attract a customer base, either. Amtrak was also planning an Indianapolis and even a Denver to Florida Auto-train service.
(I like your new Avatar 
)
Cheers, Ed
The point of Cleveland-Cincinnati is that it’s completely an Ohio corridor, so after the 5 years Ohio assumes all the expense of running it. Personally, I think 5 years is more than enough time to build whatever support or patronage there will be – and perhaps to experiment effectively with what amenities provide the best ‘bang for the buck’ or produce the greatest number of ‘raving fans’.
The big operational problem with an Auto-Train from ‘the Midwest’ to Chicago is that it can’t remotely operate as multiple state-financed corridors stitched together, but it doesn’t count politically as ‘transportation’ for people needing expensive government train support. So you have people expensively taking their cars, luggage, and family support, thousands of pounds of it, along, while probably requiring overnight sleeper accommodations over what are likely curving, rough-tracked routes.
This before the specter on every single trip of a derailment or other wreck that bangs up all those cars, on a train with a long cut of auto carriers that are supposed to be blended-braked with the passenger consist on that curving rough track.
I don’t hesitate for a moment to agree that Auto-Trains between a wide range of origin/destination pairs like Lorto and Sanford are as important as the original Auto-Train company thought they would be. But an operation like that has as little in common with the political purposes behind Amtrak as the prospective HSR between Dallas and Houston does…
More Amtrak thr better in my opinion
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