LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Amtrak loses nearly $200 for every passenger the Kentucky Cardinal carries between Chicago and Louisville, according to the findings of a congressional committee formed five years ago to reform Amtrak, according to the Courier-Journal.
In addition, the train makes only one round trip a day and is limited to 30 mph between Indianapolis and Louisville.
Those are among the reasons that the line is one of 18 long-distance routes Amtrak has targeted for elimination if Congress doesn’t come up with a $1.2 billion subsidy for the nation’s financially strapped passenger railroad.
Yet the mood of those interested in the fate of the Kentucky Cardinal and Amtrak remained upbeat this weekend at the National Association of Railroad Passengers regional conference at the Galt House Hotel.
More than 100 people from 14 states attended the meeting dedicated to keeping the memories — and future — of passenger rail alive.
”We’re vulnerable, but at least we have something to take away,” said former Louisville alderman Tom Owen, who a decade ago worked on a committee to bring passenger rail service to Louisville after it left in 1979. ”We have turf to defend.”
The list of targeted lines, which Amtrak officials say could change, will be presented to Congress on April 2. Cuts could come 180 days later.
The convention gave updates on high-speed rail, railroad-accessible attractions and information on various rail services across North America.
But most people came with a single question: What about Amtrak?
That question won’t be answered until Congress votes on whether to grant Amtrak President George Warrington’s financial request.
Congress and Amtrak are playing a high-stakes game of chicken with the country’s train service, said Howard Harding, retired Akron, Ohio, transportation director and member of the association board.
”Over the last 30 years, Amtrak has been a rolling lie. No sane person with knowledge of transportation and economics would believe it could ever be self-sufficient,” Harding said.
Amtrak lost $1.1 billion in operating costs in fiscal year 2001, records show. Only two of its 41 lines made a profit.
The Amtrak Reform Council, formed by Congress in 1997 to look at the rail agency’s business practices and its potential to break even, has already recommended an administrative restructuring and opening current routes to bid.
The list of 18 lines targeted for shutdown could change, said Amtrak Chicago-based spokesman Howard Riefs. He would not comment specifically on the Kentucky Cardinal.
Despite its drawbacks with speed, scheduling and not having a route south of Louisville, Harding said the Kentucky Cardinal could, with care, become a line that serves a major north-south artery.
But not yet, said David Cammon of Flint, Mich. After experiencing Amtrak’s 90-mph train between Kalamazoo, Mich., and Michigan City, Ind., the Kentucky Cardinal was like booking passage on a slow freighter.
But, he added, ”I think Amtrak was surprised to get as many passengers as it did, and with future plans of going to Nashville, it will be a good train.”
In December, more than 850 passengers boarded or left the train either in Louisville or Jeffersonville, Ind., Amtrak officials said. The Kentucky Cardinal had 29,201 riders in fiscal year 2001, the company reported.
Barry Barker, executive director of the Transit Authority of Louisville, which runs Union Station, said he expects Congress to grant Amtrak’s request, or at least enough of it to keep lines like the Kentucky Cardinal alive.
U.S. Rep. Bob Clement of Tennessee, the ranking Democrat on the congressional subcommittee on rail, is pushing not only to save the line but also to extend it to Nashville and points beyond.