INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s budget for the two fiscal years beginning July 1, 2019, does not contain $3 million to preserve Amtrak’s state-sponsored Hoosier State, but civic leaders from towns along its Chicago-Indianapolis route have vowed to get funding reinstated.
The train provides four round trips per week on days when the triweekly Chicago-Washington-New York Cardinal doesn’t operate.
Holcomb, whose proposed annual budget for the two years is $33.8 billion, told Statehouse File.com on Thursday that the train “hasn’t performed as originally billed” and travelers could ride the Cardinal on the days it operates (Thursdays and Saturdays, plus Monday morning into Chicago and Tuesday evening into Indianapolis).
In the Amtrak fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018, the Hoosier State generated about $915,000 in ticket revenue (down 6 percent from the previous year), carrying 27,876 passengers (down 5.5 percent). However, in the last three months of 2018, ridership was up more than 4 percent and revenue was up 6 percent compared with the same 2017 period.
In addition to $3 million in state funding for the last three years, Lafayette, West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Rensselaer, and Crawfordsville have together contributed about $500,000 annually. The on-line communities first became involved when Indiana balked at paying for the train as required in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act.
After a state attempt to outsource onboard service and marketing fell through in 2014, Amtrak agreed to keep the train running while local financial support materialized. The following August, Indiana hired Iowa Pacific Holdings, which offered full dining and business class amenities utilizing heritage cars and locomotive. Amtrak again took over in March 2017 after Iowa Pacific requested to be let out of a contract guaranteeing Amtrak expenses were paid first.
The Indianapolis Star quotes Indiana budget director Micah Vincent as saying the Hoosier State’s ridership is not high enough or growing quickly enough to justify the $3 million annual subsidy, though the state has thus far made no tangible effort to improve running times through more than token infrastructure improvements. Marketing efforts have been largely limited to Facebook and Twitter posts, while Amtrak management has eliminated route-specific promotion.
The Lafayette Journal & Courier reports that a key elected official is Republican Rep. Tim Brown of Crawfordsville, chairman of the House Budget Committee. He told the paper he was previously “on board with the $3 million, but at this time I have no thoughts one way or the other.”
Meanwhile, officials from towns along the route have vowed to push for funding restoration. The Journal & Courier says West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis, Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski, Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton, and Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh contacted each other Friday and are formulating a game plan.
“I’d say we didn’t see this one coming,” Dennis told the Journal & Courier. “We need to sit down and figure out what our next step is. … Is this just a hiccup in the budget process? Who knows? But we’re about to find out. And we’ve saved the train before.”
Danial Gless, your crack about using $5 billion is dumb. Yes, Amtrak is getting crumbs in the big scheme of things, but why take it out on a wall that also amounts to crumbs in the big scheme of things. That amount of money is a decimal point in a $4 trillion budget.
Lack of marketing for the Hoosier State is typical of Amtrak everywhere. I can’t recall the last time I heard any marketing for the Texas Eagle in the Fort Worth/Dallas area. Of course, try-weekly operation of any train is a deal breaker for most travelers. The Cardinal and Sunset need to be daily trains to promote interconnectivity. The ideal would be more trains on more routes and multiple trains on each route, but since that isn’t happening, daily operation is needed at least. Lack of equipment, both in numbers and condition, is a problem, but for another discussion.
Ed Clopton (below) summarizes in one paragraph what the rest of us have been trying to say for weeks.
It is said that the sleaze-ball president who signed the initial Amtrak legislation in 1970 just wanted the whole problem to go away, that the $40 million he and Congress threw at Amtrak would just grease the skids to the extinction of intercity passenger trains.
That was 1970, over 48 years ago. What has improved since then? Most of the corridors (Hiawatha, various in California, Northeast, Virginia), yes, have gotten better. As for an overall vision of a functioning nationwide network, no.
Paul Dyson is correct that Amtrak needs to be organized and funded as a coherent national network. Throughout its history it has suffered from a lack of long-term vision, a consequence of having been thrown together as a short-term means for freight railroads to exit the rail passenger business rather than as a long-term program for ensuring continued rail passenger service for the US. Because no one initially expected it to survive, and because certain influential politicians have always been determined that it shouldn’t, no fundamental re-thinking of its mission and structure have been allowed at a level that could actually be implemented. Until that happens, passenger rail in the US will remain on a shaky, subsistence level that frustrates both its supporters and its critics.
The money should be there because 2 years ago Holcomb signed into law a 1.2 billion tax increase the first chance he got in April 2017.This passed by his Republican party in the state legislature.The big thing about this 1.2 billion tax increase was all HB1002 because it was all about fixing our roads/bridges.This HB1002 was nothing but a big political payoff to the Indiana Farm Bureau whose members will benefit handsomely while the rest of us certainly will not.Here is what HB1002 of April 2017did .Beginning July 2017 the state gas tax went up 11 cents.My car regristration shot up $15 to almost $70.Hybrid car owners got smacked with a $50 increase while electric car owners hit wallopped with a $150 increase.So you see the millions of tax dollars that state government have taken from car owners since April 2017 in increased car cost should be used for this important Amtrak route.Also included in the 1.2 billion was the fact 30 plus taxes/fees were also raised that had nothing to do with HB1002 & roadbuilding.So you see the money should be there.Tim Brown voted for every penny of this 1.2 billion tax increase we have had to endure.This is where the regime who runs the Indiana Republican party from Kyle Hupner down are liars because they very clearly state in their 2016 & 2018 that they are for smaller govt & lower taxes.No there are not.The fact that I am paying higher & increased car cost because of HB1002 in April 2017 proves them wrong
Mr . Norton wants to support the criminal in the White House and build a wall!!!! Fund public transit, fund Amtrak and put the Federal workers back to work.
The Indiana crisis is a clear indication that PRIIA needs to be reformed. Amtrak is a national network. It doesn’t matter whether a train runs from Boston to Washington, Los Angeles to San Diego, or Chicago to Indianapolis. The idea that parts of this network should be funded differently depending on distance or whether they cross State lines is a nonsense. NARP/RPA should never have let this pass without a major fight.
As for this specific case, Indiana is being screwed, both for funding an interstate train, and for not claiming back some fees from Amtrak for hauling rolling stock to and from Beech Grove. Amtrak must be chuckling, getting a free ride at the expense of Hoosier taxpayers.
All politics aside, this latest crisis could force AMTRAK to make some gutsy moves to save and improve service over this Wash-Chi line by treating it as two separate markets. Combine the CARDINAL with the CAROLINIAN (NY-Wash) and run it to Cincinnati where upon arrival it would be turned and serviced and head back east. A separate Cincinnati-Chicago train would run with the same modus operandi (i.e. arrive get serviced and back out) Of course the schedule would need to be tightened up and a suburban stop near 1-275 and Oxford, Ohio would be necessary. All trains daily.
Gerald – The 20 million illegals is somewhat in line with the other estimates I’ve seen. The point is regardless of the number, many of us see it as a problem.
A statistic that may be slightly off doesn’t make it a lie, nor does the person cited a statistic that may be slightly off make him a buffoon.
Connecticut just invested a huge amount in the Springfield-New Haven line.
Virginia pays for state supported trains to Roanoke and Lynchburg.
New York pays for Empire Service trains. Massachusetts is going to pay to extend some Empire Service trains to Pittsfield as a trial during the summer of 2019 or 2020.
New York also supports trains to Vermont, Toronto and Montreal.
So they do pay.
Indiana is just being stupid and cheap. Their foray into having Iowa Pacific operate the Hoosier State didn’t help. That was a huge fiasco.
Mr. Norton should learn to fact check, but then again, since he likes to espouse the same lies that come out of our current…orange headed buffoon, I don’t think that’s something within his capabilities. 20 million illegal immigrants, sure, and I have beach front property and a bridge to sell you as well. Does anyone find it odd that we need find 5.7 Billion to build a wall that won’t work yet he expects the people that are CURRENTLY protecting the border to do so WITHOUT pay…any response to that? Oh, and since this is a rail forum, just how much of his human trafficking and illegal drugs enter the country via rail(that a wall won’t prevent either)?
So, tell me again, why don’t Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York State, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland District of Columbia and Virginia pay for their corridor?
Really Mr Landey, conservative views are disallowed? It seems to me that many of your own responses to articles here show your political leanings. There are several other writers that also seem to have views similar to yours. Mr Gless has a right to his opinions as do you.
The Iowa Pacific episode with the Hoosier State was a mess because Amtrak put a poison pill in the contract that Iowa Pacific and the State of Indiana did not find. The tragic part is that the State was apparently unwilling to modify the contract to give IP the revenue floor they needed and turned it back to Amtrak, ignoring the dramatic revenue and ridership gains IP produced, and Amtrak ignored.
And Pennsylvania pays for the Keystone service and the Pennsylvanians.
Mr. Landey,
Massachusetts owns the corridor in the Commonwealth. This was the subject of recent, protracted legal wranglings when Amtrak was trying to charge them at an equivalent rate as the agencies along the corridor that operate on Amtrak-owned tracks.
Here’s a link to a presentation on the topic – recommend you copy & paste it in your browser as the comment submission software will likely butcher the link:
https://www.apta.com/mc/legal/previous/2017legal/synopsis/Documents/PPT_MBTA%20v%20NE%20Corridor%20Comm.pdf
Once again for about the third time today I object to left-wing commentary on this site while more conservative views are disallowed.
My opinion: There is no reason to believe that more border security funding will be at the expense of Amtrak. Both together are very small parts of the budget.
Jim Norton: With the exception of the Hiawatha, Amtrak just plain is, as you say, a flop.
Mr. Gless is a bleeding heart liberal. Amtrak has accomplished nothing in 48 years. In just a decade 20 million illegal aliens have entered this country and leeched off our resources. The Wall would save enough by stopping these free loaders to greatly fund Amtrak. But you know. Amtrak is a joke. The future of passenger rail is Bright Line. They have done more in 5 years than Amtrak in 5 decades and given much less.
I agree with Mr. Gless.
Thank you Mike Friedman for your state funding information. Nothing like FACTS to quiet the unknowing.
As for funding the Hoosier State and other Amtrak service NATIONWIDE….just think what 5 billion dollars would do instead of a stupid wall that won’t work anyway…imagine…if you will.