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OHIO RAIL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

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Contact: Stu Nicholson

(614)644-0513

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: September 3, 2004

Amtrak Service Cuts To Ohio:

A Mixed Bag of Bad News & Good News

(Columbus) – Three Ohio cities ... Youngstown, Akron and Fostoria ... will lose passenger rail service by March 2005, as the result of a business move by Amtrak to end its contract with the U.S. Postal Service to haul mail and express. The income from that mail and express service helped underwrite the cost of the train, “The Three Rivers.”

“The loss of rail passenger service to these Ohio cities is regrettable, but it is minimal,” says ORDC Executive Director Jim Seney. “The change in thinking on the part of Amtrak that led to this decision: recognizing that continuing to haul mail and express for the USPS costs more than the revenue being generated, is significant. Amtrak tells us dropping mail and express also eliminates over $12-million dollars in debt service. This kind of cost-conscious thinking from Amtrak is significant and welcome.”

Seney says this change also presents an opportunity for Ohio and Amtrak to begin talking about better, more targeted rail passenger service for Ohio.

“Ridership on the Three Rivers was minimal, barely over 12-thousand passengers in 2003," says Seney, “which reflects the fact Amtrak considers Ohio the railroad equivalent of a “flyover” state. That’s why virtually all of our Amtrak service rolls through in the middle of the night. That’s not going to generate good ridership numbers or revenue from fares. The real solution to the lack of ridership are daytime corridor trains as we’re proposing in ORDC’s Ohio Hub Plan. Our plan projects ridership well beyond what we’re seeing today on any of Amtrak’s existing routes.”

“In fact,” says Seney, “it might be possible to capture some of that ridership right now, if Amtrak would consider extending one of its Pennsylvania trains to Cleveland from Pittsburgh. That’s a heavily traveled route, especially for business travelers. This would be a perfect example of how to attract new riders by giving them fast, convenient, same-day travel without the hassles or costs of driving or flying.” The ORDC Ohio Hub Plan is due to be “rolled out” in early November for public comment.

Amtrak also tells ORDC that the remaining passenger trains serving Ohio could see major improvements both in schedules and running times because trains will no longer be delayed at key points by the coupling of mail and express cars en route. As much as a half-hour to and one hour improvements could be to the three remaining trains serving Ohio:

• The Lake Shore (Chicago-New York: stops in Bryan, Toledo, Sandusky, Elyria, Cleveland)

• The Capitol Limited (Chicago-Washington DC: stops in Alliance, Cleveland, Elyria, Sandusky, Toledo)

• The Cardinal (Chicago-New York: stops in Cincinnati, Hamilton)

Amtrak officials told Seney that letters are being sent to the governors of all affected states about the dropping of mail and express. The only other train affected by it, besides “The Three Rivers,” will be the Savannah, Georgia to Florida segment of “The Palmetto.”

“We don’t need to waste time mourning the loss of trains that weren’t making the grade financially anyway,” said Seney. “What we need to be doing is moving forward on developing trains that make financial sense and get people where and when they want to go.”