by Station Aficionado
Following a recent discussion regarding the Cardinal, I've been wondering whether it really is worthwhile for Amtrak to run a Chicago-Indianapolis train. (I know that the Cardinal/Hoosier State is used to ferry equipment back and forth between Chicago and Beech Grove, but I don’t think it does so every day, and I would think Amtrak could simply run a “shop train” once or twice a week to transfer equipment). I’ve looked at old timetables, the SPV Great Lakes East railroad atlas, Kalmbach’s reprint of the 1948 Rand McNally railroad atlas, and Craig Sanders’ Limiteds, Local and Expresses in Indiana, 1838-1971, and done a good bit of searching on the map function on Bing (highly recommended for those who have not checked it out). And I have reached the conclusion that Amtrak would be better served to focus its efforts elsewhere. (The Indianapolis-Cincinnati route is also problematic, but I’ll stick to Chicago-Indianapolis for this posting.)
Once upon a time, there were three relatively direct passenger routes between the two cities: the NYC(Big Four)/IC route through Kankakee and Lafayette; the Monon route through the town of Monon, Frankfort and Carmel; and the PRR route through North Judson, Logansport and Frankfort. According to the January 1955 Official Guide, the fastest times on these routes were 3:35, 4:00, and 3:50, respectively. By comparison, the Cardinal is carded for 5:05, but often takes much longer.
None of the three routes is now usable. The NYC route is entirely gone between Lafayette and Rock Island, just north of Indianapolis. It no longer serves the old Big Four station (now moved), and a backup move (albeit a short one) would be required to do so. Moreover, between Lafayette and Kankakee, the ex-NYC is today a slow-speed short-line route. And I’m sure CN doesn’t want any more passenger trains on the ex-IC route than are already there. The Monon is gone between Monticello and Indianapolis (although Amtrak uses the portion northwest of Monon). The PRR route is now missing several large chunks north and south of Logansport.
Thus, there is no good passenger route left. This is not Amtrak's fault, and I thing the freight railroads were trying to opitimize trackage for freight servive. Amtrak, hence, must content itself with the present cobbled-together route through Crawfordsville, Lafayette and Dyer. Leaving Indianapolis, this route looks like the path of someone trying to shake off a pursuer. A train must first head southwest on the ex-PRR line to St. Louis, then turn north on the ex-PRR line that went to Logansport, then turn west-northwest on the ex-Peoria & Eastern (the direct P&E line to downtown Indianapolis is gone), and finally turn in the general direction of Chicago when it attains the ex-Monon route at Crawfordsville.
This route is slow, and congested, with parts controlled by antiquated signals. It is not remotely competitive time-wise with either auto or plane (even factoring in the necessary pre-arrival time at an airport). It also doesn’t attract a lot of people relative to the markets it serves. For FY 2008, the total boardings and alightings at Lafayette and Indianapolis, the only two significant traffic centers on the route, were 23,083 and 34,089. That amounts to 63 and 93 people per day getting on and off, and some of them were going to or coming from locations east of Indianapolis. That’s a very small percentage of the daily travel between those two cities and Chicago. In my opinion, this route is simply not viable as a passenger corridor
There are no real alternative routes, either. While the ex-PRR line remains in service between Indianapolis and Frankfort, a train would have to turn west on the NS at Frankfort to in order reach Lafayette. There is no connection (at least in proper quadrant) at Frankfort, however, and the train would still have to use the present dysfunctional route north of Lafayette. The only other route that looks even remotely possible would be the ex-NKP line to Tipton and Kokomo. This line is owned by the Indianapolis Transportation Museum between Indianapolis and Tipton. It is slow, NS severed it at Tipton more than a decade ago, and the line’s direct connection to downtown Indianapolis is either severed or gone. Furthermore, although Indiana pays lip service to the idea of Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati high-speed service, I don’t sense any real commitment to it. In fact, a few years back, one of the economic powers-that-be in Indianapolis (Eli Lilly, I believe) raised the idea of removing almost all railroad trackage in the downtown area. Finally, I don’t think the Indiana congressional delegation has historically been a big booster of Amtrak. Thus, dropping Chicago-Indianapolis would not seem to carry a huge political cost.
In short, the present route is not really viable. Any new or rebuilt alternative would cost massive amounts of money, which could not be justified absent the building of a high-speed, multiple-frequency service (which I don’t see happening any time soon). Thus, I believe Amtrak should redirect the money and equipment it uses on the west end of the Cardinal route to enhance or start service on more viable routes (e.g., the Michigan line, Chicago-Quad Cities, an additional Chicago-St. Paul train, etc.). I’m curious what others may think about this.
Once upon a time, there were three relatively direct passenger routes between the two cities: the NYC(Big Four)/IC route through Kankakee and Lafayette; the Monon route through the town of Monon, Frankfort and Carmel; and the PRR route through North Judson, Logansport and Frankfort. According to the January 1955 Official Guide, the fastest times on these routes were 3:35, 4:00, and 3:50, respectively. By comparison, the Cardinal is carded for 5:05, but often takes much longer.
None of the three routes is now usable. The NYC route is entirely gone between Lafayette and Rock Island, just north of Indianapolis. It no longer serves the old Big Four station (now moved), and a backup move (albeit a short one) would be required to do so. Moreover, between Lafayette and Kankakee, the ex-NYC is today a slow-speed short-line route. And I’m sure CN doesn’t want any more passenger trains on the ex-IC route than are already there. The Monon is gone between Monticello and Indianapolis (although Amtrak uses the portion northwest of Monon). The PRR route is now missing several large chunks north and south of Logansport.
Thus, there is no good passenger route left. This is not Amtrak's fault, and I thing the freight railroads were trying to opitimize trackage for freight servive. Amtrak, hence, must content itself with the present cobbled-together route through Crawfordsville, Lafayette and Dyer. Leaving Indianapolis, this route looks like the path of someone trying to shake off a pursuer. A train must first head southwest on the ex-PRR line to St. Louis, then turn north on the ex-PRR line that went to Logansport, then turn west-northwest on the ex-Peoria & Eastern (the direct P&E line to downtown Indianapolis is gone), and finally turn in the general direction of Chicago when it attains the ex-Monon route at Crawfordsville.
This route is slow, and congested, with parts controlled by antiquated signals. It is not remotely competitive time-wise with either auto or plane (even factoring in the necessary pre-arrival time at an airport). It also doesn’t attract a lot of people relative to the markets it serves. For FY 2008, the total boardings and alightings at Lafayette and Indianapolis, the only two significant traffic centers on the route, were 23,083 and 34,089. That amounts to 63 and 93 people per day getting on and off, and some of them were going to or coming from locations east of Indianapolis. That’s a very small percentage of the daily travel between those two cities and Chicago. In my opinion, this route is simply not viable as a passenger corridor
There are no real alternative routes, either. While the ex-PRR line remains in service between Indianapolis and Frankfort, a train would have to turn west on the NS at Frankfort to in order reach Lafayette. There is no connection (at least in proper quadrant) at Frankfort, however, and the train would still have to use the present dysfunctional route north of Lafayette. The only other route that looks even remotely possible would be the ex-NKP line to Tipton and Kokomo. This line is owned by the Indianapolis Transportation Museum between Indianapolis and Tipton. It is slow, NS severed it at Tipton more than a decade ago, and the line’s direct connection to downtown Indianapolis is either severed or gone. Furthermore, although Indiana pays lip service to the idea of Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati high-speed service, I don’t sense any real commitment to it. In fact, a few years back, one of the economic powers-that-be in Indianapolis (Eli Lilly, I believe) raised the idea of removing almost all railroad trackage in the downtown area. Finally, I don’t think the Indiana congressional delegation has historically been a big booster of Amtrak. Thus, dropping Chicago-Indianapolis would not seem to carry a huge political cost.
In short, the present route is not really viable. Any new or rebuilt alternative would cost massive amounts of money, which could not be justified absent the building of a high-speed, multiple-frequency service (which I don’t see happening any time soon). Thus, I believe Amtrak should redirect the money and equipment it uses on the west end of the Cardinal route to enhance or start service on more viable routes (e.g., the Michigan line, Chicago-Quad Cities, an additional Chicago-St. Paul train, etc.). I’m curious what others may think about this.