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Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: Indiana seeks operators for ‘Hoosier State’ route, Iowa Pacific possible bidder
Bravo. Let the railroads run the railroads. I wish them well and Indiana moved to the lead of Europe, as have agencies in the Northeast. I see a trend happening, and I can only hope Amtrak ceases to be an operating company in the same manner and simply administrate long distance service as provided by the roads. Sweeten the pot and bring the mails back onto the rails as the USPS has already looked favorably upon.
Lawrence
Traditionally passenger trains carried the mail, and if a private carrier was under contract to run the passenger service, the payment by USPS for this service could potentially offset the operating cost of running the passenger service.
Wiliam,
From the USPS report
Key findings include the following:
Intermodal rail has become an industry standard for efficient long-distance freight
transportation and is a best practice that could cut postal transportation costs
dramatically.
The OIG estimates that in the short term, shifting a portion of mail volume to
intermodal rail could yield cost savings of about $100 million per year without
changes to the Postal Service’s network.
By realigning its processing and transportation network and strategically
recommitting to the use of intermodal rail, the Postal Service could save
significantly more in the long run.
Because railroad-owned logistics companies now work to facilitate the use of
intermodal rail for its customers, moving to intermodal rail would be easier for
postal management than in the past.
Competitors such as UPS and FedEx have become major users of freight rail
over the last decade just as the Postal Service has moved away from it. In fact,
UPS is now the single largest user of intermodal rail service in the United States.
J.B. Hunt, one of the Postal Service’s largest highway trucking contractors, now earns about 60 percent of its revenues from intermodal rail operations.
The Hoosier State also stops in Dyer where I live,but Dyer refuses to put up the cash to keep it running.
Any improvements to the Hoosier State’s on-time service would be very welcome. Right now it is so bad that it is almost laughable. I live in Indy and jump at the opportunity to ride a train. But when time is a factor it is more reliable to drive to Hammond and take the South Shore Line into the city.
It is worth exploring. However, it might be better if the “private operator” were a subcontractor to Amtrak. This would allow the operator to use Amtrak’s right to use the lines. Also, ticketing could be handled by Amtrak, allowing through ticketing for those connecting to other trains in Chicago.
It is worth exploring. However, it might be better if the “private operator” were a subcontractor to Amtrak. This would allow the operator to use Amtrak’s right to use the lines. Also, ticketing could be handled by Amtrak, allowing through ticketing for those connecting to other trains in Chicago.
It is worth exploring. However, it might be better if the “private operator” were a subcontractor to Amtrak. This would allow the operator to use Amtrak’s right to use the lines. Also, ticketing could be handled by Amtrak, allowing through ticketing for those connecting to other trains in Chicago.
It is worth exploring. However, it might be better if the “private operator” were a subcontractor to Amtrak. This would allow the operator to use Amtrak’s right to use the lines. Also, ticketing could be handled by Amtrak, allowing through ticketing for those connecting to other trains in Chicago.
I’m a somewhat of a loss about the comments of the USPS and it’s bearing on the passenger route being discussed. But all it will take to improve the passenger line’s on time performance is money. Not for rail improvements, but to the host railroad. Pay the host railroad a sum equal to what they receive from their top intermodal trains for the route and frequency. The state can either subsidize the passenger carrier or allow fares to rise to compensate the carrier.
To me, passenger train routing into Chicago on any southern or eastern lines (including the ex-IC with its St Charles Air Line backup move) is a separate issue to be resolved under the CREATE umbrella. This includes Indianapolis service.
I agree with Mr. Lindsay, although I wouldn’t characterize the current ex-Monon and ex-NYC current routing via Crawfordsville as inferior. It’s a secondary freight route and beefing it up for faster and more reliable passenger service only takes money, which someone pointed out is the real issue here. Aside: I wonder if Iowa Pacific’s business model includes hauling Amtrak rolling stock to/from Beech Grove.
Unless Indiana is willing to buy the right of way there will be the same problems that Amtrak faces, probably worse, as a private company would have no rights over the freight carriers. For expanded service Indiana will be paying a lot more than $2.7M, after all they are unwilling to pay now for food service. Their current ambivalence is partially responsible for poor service, a
service that a lot of communities went to bat for, demonstrating their desperation to have even late,erratic & foodless service.
I’ve ridden the Hosier State. Getting in and out of Chicago is tedious and frustrating and that is not likely to change. I’d love to see Ed Ellis try something but the route itself and the number of railroads involved is part of the problem. I suspect this proposal from Indiana comes mostly because they don’t really want to spend the money: they almost lost the train just recently because they didn’t want to cough up the bucks.
Linsay is right. The routing from Dyer to Union station is a disaster and affects the Cardinal as well.
Bruce: USPS has looked ‘favorably’ on returning mail to the rails? First I have heard of that. That might be good.
This is all about one thing…money. This service will never improve until money is spent to improve and speed access to Chicago and Indy. I have believed all along that the Chicago-Indy corridor could be as successful as Chicago-St. Louis, Chicago-Mke, etc. However there is no current route that does not have issues with either freight train congestion or just poor track. Until major investments are made by somebody I just don’t see anything changing. I saw that the South Shore is looking at expanding service down to Dwyer…this could be a start, but again it costs a lot of money. When Conrail downgraded or got rid of the old “Big Four” route via Kankakee, that really put intra-Indiana passenger service at a disadvantage. It is too bad that happened, because if that route was still viable, and say Amtrak or the state of Indiana had bought the portion from Kankakee to Indy, we would probably already have a viable corridor poised for growth. Alas, that did not happen, so here we are.
I would like to add one more comment, and that is how clueless IDOT appears in this situation. Over the last 40 years how many successful private inter-city passenger train operations have there been in the US? Other than maybe Auto-Train I cannot think of one. The Indiana legislature just seems to think that by having “private operators” involved, everything will work, the economics of the situation be damned.
You can’t blame them for trying, but you wonder if anyone at IDOT really thought this through.
The Hoosier State leaves Indy at an ungodly early hour and returns late at night. More reasonable arrival and departure times would have to help.