The Indiana Department of Transportation has ended contract negotiations with Corridor Capital LLC to provide passenger rail cars, marketing and other services for the Hoosier State line between Indianapolis and Chicago, said INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield.
Wingfield did not comment as to why negotiations were terminated.
But he said the state is looking at its options to continue the service after the Jan. 31 expiration date on INDOT’s contracts with Amtrak and the communities along the route.
“INDOT is requesting pricing from Amtrak to continue as operator after January 31, minus certain elements of the existing service that Amtrak is providing, such as rolling stock, onboard services and marketing,” Wingfield said.
Amtrak is working with the state, but the clock is ticking, spokesman Marc Magliari said.
“Amtrak submitted a contract renewal in April for the current service model and has offered to work with the state on other viable models used in other states,” he said.
“However, time is growing short to resolve many open questions for daily passenger rail service to continue from Feb. 1 and onward.”
Sort of goes against krtraveler’s claim on another thread that some private firms are chomping at the bit to compete with Amtrak. First real test of the concept seems to have fallen flat!
Maybe it was the wrong private firm. A firm with no equipment, no substantial rail history, etc. As I recall, Ed Ellis’ Iowa Pacific came in a very close second, and does have equipment, operating experience, experience coordinating with both Amtrak and Class Is …
IIRC it was just a bit different, Corridor Capital claiming to have refurbished ex El Cap high levels and Ed’s bid was flexible using ATK equipment or his with ATK folks or his troops manning things. Do I remember incorrectl?
I don’t think it matters who trys to run the Hoosier State under current conditions of slow speeds. lousy track, and ridiculous routing into and out of Chicago. I rode the Monon years ago from Lafayette to Chicago and from what I remember it took about the same amount of time to get to Chicago as it does now. But that was when it took 3-4 hours to drive there on us52/US41 through small towns and suburbs. Now it’s about a 2 hour drive (depending on traffic). If you don’t want to park in Chicago, its about 90 minutes to Miller to catch the South Shore. What operator can fight those numbers?
I hate to agree with RKFarms but…The route is setup for failure. I rode the Flo from Bloomington in 1979 to Chicago and that routing was bad. I’m not sure that the current routing is much better. Is there a time as passenger rail supporters we should acknowledge a service isn’t effective?