(The following story by Stephen Dyer appeared on the Akron Beacon Journal website on September 4.)
AKRON, Ohio — Amtrak will discontinue passenger service in Akron in March, but state officials remain hopeful that Akron’s train station won’t remain vacant for long.
“Amtrak didn’t close the door on coming back,” said Ohio Rail Development Commission spokesman Stuart Nicholson. “It’s entirely possible” that a new or altered passenger service could find its way through the Polymer Valley.
Amtrak announced Friday that what is known as the Three Rivers route from New York to Chicago — via Akron — will stop offering service west of Pittsburgh. That change will be made on or about March 1. The train service must legally warn communities six months in advance of a cut.
The chief reason for the change is that Amtrak is getting out of carrying mail and express business packages for the U.S. Postal Service.
The Three Rivers service was extended west of Pittsburgh in 1996 to serve that mail business.
In a news release, Amtrak President and CEO David Gunn said carrying mail no longer makes business sense and continuing it has hurt overall passenger service. The Three Rivers train also stopped in Youngstown and Fostoria.
While that’s bad news for potential Three Rivers riders, Nicholson said it’s good news for the Lakeshore Limited, which runs through the New York-Chicago route, via Cleveland. That’s because Lakeshore trains will get an extra sleeper car.
With fewer trains carrying mail, there will be 300 fewer cars to change out in Chicago, he said, meaning fewer delays.
He also said it opens the possibility of doing a short-haul passenger route between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, with possible stops in Akron and Youngstown.
Nicholson said a study his commission did found that such a route would create significant rail traffic and could have riders leaving at 7 a.m. from Cleveland and arriving in Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m. and in New York in time to catch a show.
Convincing Amtrak will take some doing, though, Nicholson said. “It’s going to take a serious effort on our part, from state and local leaders,” he said.
Amtrak stops twice a day in Akron. A train to Chicago arrives at 1:19 a.m. while a train to New York arrives at 6 a.m.
The Three Rivers train saw about 10 people board in Akron each time it stopped here, according to 2003 Amtrak data. A total of 129,580 passengers rode the rails in Ohio last year.