(The following story by Ron Fonger appeared on the Flint Journal website on December 28.)
GENESEE COUNTY, Mich. — The Amtrak train that stops in Durand, Flint and Lapeer will apparently lose its international flavor in just a few months.
State transportation and Amtrak officials are talking seriously about ending service to Toronto as early as April and focusing instead on getting passengers to Chicago earlier in the day and getting them home the same night.
The idea, which could go to the state Transportation Commission for approval in January, got mixed reviews from passengers at the Amtrak station in Flint on Christmas Eve.
Riders such as Christina Micica, 29, of Chicago, like the idea of getting in and out of Chicago in one day, but not losing the option of traveling on to Toronto.
“For Chicago (trips) it’s good,” said Micica, who was headed back to Illinois after visiting a friend in the Thumb area. “(But) I don’t think people would (support not being able to) get across the border.”
The Amtrak and bus station on the Mass Transportation Authority grounds on S. Dort Highway near I-69 was nearly filled with bus and train travelers Dec. 24, but that hasn’t been the case during the past 12 months.
Despite two good months in October and November, the current Chicago-to-Toronto route lost nearly 12 percent of its riders in the most recent fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the route was one of the few in the Amtrak system to lose passengers last year, sending planners looking for new ideas.
The Michigan Department of Transportation is involved in planning the service because the state has paid Amtrak for several years to subsidize losses on the route.
“Cross-border issues have affected the train’s timeliness … We believe that the (new route) will be more successful than the current train,” Magliari said.
Rather than a 1:25 p.m. departure from Flint that arrives in Chicago at 5:55 p.m., the new schedule targets a take-off time at about 5:30 a.m., an arrival in Chicago before noon and a late afternoon departure back to Flint.
“We think it’s a good idea. We’ve agreed in principal, and we’re in the process of developing a contract,” said Tim Hoeffner, a spokesman for MDOT’s Rail Passenger Services Division.
“We think there’s a chance to grow the ridership,” Hoeffner said. “I think right now, obviously, having two anchor cities is good but it causes the trains to pass through Michigan at the midpoint of the day.
“That’s not what people tell us they want to do.”
Rail officials want to focus on better Chicago times to give Michigan riders the chance to shop or do business and come home in the same day and because the city is a primary exchange point in the Amtrak system.
The route would be renamed the Blue Water as it was before Toronto was added in 1982, according to current plans, Magliari said.
Travelers who wanted to get to Toronto would have to take a different train altogether or find another way to travel from Port Huron to Sarnia where they could reconnect with another train to Toronto.
Another plan by Amtrak to return a station agent to Flint in February will also be welcomed, said Barb Spaulding-Wescott of Flint, who rides the train two or three times a year.
“It’s a restful way to travel,” she said. “It’s fun watching the countryside and you meet the neatest people.”
Ticket agents were pulled from three cities on the International route one year ago, forcing passengers to buy tickets on the train, over the phone or through a Web site.
That change was designed to save money, but officials said passengers missed the service that came from having a ticket agent on site to answer questions and iron out problems before trains stopped.