If Iowa Pacific can [provide good service and make money, more power to it. However, Iowa Pacific could very well face the same problems Amtrak has. Shitty track and unwilling host railroads.
I’m glad to see a private operator coming, although a huge part of the problem is indeed the rail infrastructure between Chicago & Indiana. The old Monon line was a mainline and the current route is more or less of a secondary mainline. CSX probably wishes they still had that route as they suffer severe congestion south of Chicago (especially on their shared route with UP). Best of luck to Iowa Pacific. Also, correction to Mr. Lindsay, IDOT is Illinois DOT. Indiana’s is INDOT.
The good thing here is that someone is willing to try something different.
Ed Ellis and Iowa Pacific have their hands full right now. Not only keeping his Permian Basin cash cow running, but also keeping his Pullman startup viable, financing his efforts to provide reefers for CSX perishable services and his Oklahoma passenger service between Tulsa and OKC.
Personally, I think he will take a pass.
Indiana has decided to forgo the Illinois approach (borrow to the hilt) to subsidize their Amtrak routes, so they are looking to the open market to deliver.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the same benefits AAF has in Florida. A single owner of the entire route.
As we all know, the biggest problem with Amtrak is all the politics that comes along with being run by Congress. I think the day will come when private/public partnerships will replace this and the rail renaissance will finally reach the passenger train. It’s just waiting for the right entrepreneur to come up with a winning business model.
I think it is the same problem all over the states. Fright don’t need high speed rail but Amrtak does. People want to move faster then fright speed but that kind of tracks cost money. Along with the better train control system then what is used in fright system. (Stop the train when the engineer failed to do so. Red light.) BNSF, UP, CSX…etc will damage a lot of box cars. Amtrak damage alot of people. This is my 2 cents.
Quick correction to Mr. Lindsay, IDOT is Illinois DOT. Indiana’s is INDOT. As for the train, I sincerely wish for the best for Iowa Pacific. I feel the problem in this case is not Amtrak but the host railroad. CSX probably greatly regrets the abandonment of the Monon line (former mainline quality line with track, signal, etc.) while keeping the sub-par secondary Chicago-Indy line. The congestion suffered on the UP shared line south of Chicago is proof that they probably regret it. The only way Iowa Pacific will be able to do any better could be in terms of on board service and the types of marketing they’re able to do. Outside of that they’ll need to pay a bunch of money to CSX if the route is going to be improved at all.
On an interesting note, the South Shore & South Bend Railroad is trying to get a study going to extend service into Dyer, IN. Assuming they will renovate the former Monon line, which they now own, from Airline Junction (Munster), thru Hammond, Hohman Crossing, State Line Crossing and into Burnham, , this could be interesting in two ways. First of all, if they make it to Dyer, they could also extend to Lowell, and even to Indy, and take the Hoosier State over. Second of all even if they get to Dyer, their route to Chicago would be a pretty fast one for other passenger railroads, including Amtrak which, thru an agreement would give the South Shore a bit more income to work other proposed extensions, such as to Valparaiso, IN. Granted they are an electric railroad like the IC, and overhead wire could be expensive. But they can also run diesel power in outlying areas.
Amtrak might deny access to Union Station of this happens, in retaliation. Normally I’m fine with private operators but I think in this case it should be left alone. ALL of the freight railroads might not be willing to work with anyone other than Amtrak anyway. I spoke to a UP lobbiest in 2012 who said that he and his colleagues at other railroads were decidedly not happy and nervous about the provision of PRIIA allowing private operators. They want to work with as few companies as possible…and only Amtrak would be the most ideal, he said.
I wonder if the folks at INDOT understand that Amtrak has access to the freight railroad ROWs by statutory authority. The commuter authorities have access, as I understand it, by local agreements. But the freight railroads do not have to let anyone else on.
But if INDOT and a new operator are able to forge a contract with the railroads between Indianapolis and Chicago and then the new operator operates the Hoosier State successfully then this could be a game-changer nationwide. I am sure Amtrak doesn’t want to lose the Hoosier State because it works well for ferrying shop equipment between Chicago and Beech Grove.
I am heartened that INDOT seems to want to make this a multi-frequency route. It certainly deserves to be. But will CSX and NS, to name just two on the route, be willing? But for a new operator or even Amtrak to be successful on this route, as some on this forum have written, a faster and more delay-free routing must be found on the Chicago end.
One possibility is using CN’s GTW between Munster and Harvey, using the ramp connection to access the former IC (GTW goes underneath but there used to be connection track), then the former IC to the once-talked about Grand Crossing Connection to access the NS Chicago Line and it’s a straight shot to CUS. The major chokepoint between Munster and Harvey will still be Thornton Jct which I believe UP controls.
That will cost a bundle for the Grand Crossing Connection and for upgrades at Harvey. And I doubt NS will be thrilled to have even one more pair of Amtraks on the west end of the Chicago Line even with Metra’s Rock Island District grade separated at Englewood. If anyone can think of another way off the torturous present routing, I’d like to hear it.
For sure, the route needs more frequencies. But how to achieve that will be a very hard nut to crack.
SOOO much fun! I boldly predict that in 5 years, Amtrak will be running the Hoosier State (if it’s running at all). The bidders will be shocked, shocked I tell you to find out that they won’t be able to use Amtrak’s “stuff” for free as we’ve seen in the past.
IAP knows how this all works, so I’ll be surprised if they actual bid (or submit a proposal, or whatever).
SOOO much fun! I boldly predict that in 5 years, Amtrak will be running the Hoosier State (if it’s running at all). The bidders will be shocked, shocked I tell you to find out that they won’t be able to use Amtrak’s “stuff” for free as we’ve seen in the past.
IAP knows how this all works, so I’ll be surprised if they actual bid (or submit a proposal, or whatever).
I agree that what is needed is money to mprove the track and congestion. I was stuck on the Cardinal jsut outside of Chicago one night for 3 hours due to a freight that had run out of fuel (if you can beleive that). That kind of thing will continue to happen unless there is more money available to upgrade the track and signaling system. And, right now the money isn’t there.
Fright, Doug? Just checking!
I see Hoosier idealistic Teabaggers behind this effort.
There are several segments to this route that have different problems. Indy to Ames (Crawfordsville) is not signalled. C-ville to Lafayette is OK, but north of Lafayette has a long stretch of old jointed rail (probably dating from the Monon days) that is speed limited to 60 (I believe) rather than the 79 on most of the rest of the line. there are several small towns with speed restrictions of 40 or so (Brookston, Reynolds, Chalmers, Monon) but then north of Dyer it goes from bad to worse. The last 30 miles or so often takes as long as Lafayette-Dyer. There isn’t that much freight traffic on this route, so CSX has little to no incentive to upgrade the rail. Years ago the schedule was 2.5 hours from Lafayette to Union Station, believe it now is an hour longer, and that is often not enough. It seems hard to imagine that any private outfit will make any difference in how this train operates. Our wonderful politicians down in Indy would rather spend money on widening interstates and taking out good farmland for the expansion of I-69 south of Indy. Too bad, this could be a useful passenger route.
Amtrak can easily fix this whole problem by restoring daily service on the Cardinal when the new Viewliner II car order is completed. Daily service would be maintained Chicago-Indianapolis, and Indiana would be off the hook to provide the state funding. Another way this problem could be fixed would be for Amtrak to consider piggybacking the Cardinal’s schedule onto the trains #66 and #67 at DC; this would open the door for a one seat ticket to go from Cincinnati-Providence, New Haven- Indianapolis, or Charleston-Boston, for example.The least they could do is have through Viewliner sleeper service with the current schedules, Chicago-Washington-Boston.