(The following story by David Jesse appeared on the Lansing State Journal website on April 25.)
PORT HURON, Mich. — About 200 people gathered at Port Huron’s 16th Street Amtrak station Saturday morning for a ceremony honoring the new Blue Water Line.
Gone is the International route, which followed the same path but continued to Toronto. That route was eliminated because passenger traffic was down 11 percent in Amtrak’s last fiscal year.
The Blue Water Line offers service to Chicago and back in a day. The new schedule takes effect today. A round-trip ticket for an adult traveling from East Lansing to Chicago today is about $40.
Amtrak will be helped with subsidies from the state this fiscal year on the new route and on its Grand Rapids-to-Chicago line.
Traffic on that route increased 22 percent after a scheduling change that allowed day trips. The railroad also has a nonsubsidized route from Detroit to Chicago.
Stanley Piper, 69, of Port Huron Township, brought his video camera with him to record Saturday’s event.
A retired railroad worker, Piper rode the last International train on Friday and came back into Port Huron on the special train commissioned for the first run of the Blue Water.
He’s not a big fan of the move, thinking it will cost Amtrak riders going to and coming from Canada.
“I’m leaning toward it being a bad move,” he said.
Amtrak and state officials disagree. They say the new schedule will allow people to go to Chicago and stops along the way, such as Battle Creek, more easily.
“I think this change is symbolic of what should happen more across the United States, relatively short corridors between cities,” said Amtrak President David Dunn.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)