(The following story by Chris Poynter was published in the January 16 issue of the Louisville Courier-Journal.)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Amtrak’s Kentucky Cardinal passenger train, which rolled into the Louisville area in 1999 with predictions that it would bring tourists and help revitalize Union Station, will end service this spring because it is losing money.
”We experienced significant losses,” Amtrak spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon said yesterday. ”The train has extremely low ridership, and the express cargo business never grew to fruition.”
Louisville, under the leadership of former Mayor Dave Armstrong and others, spent about $360,000 to bring Amtrak back to the city.
Armstrong had predicted that the train would bring passengers to the city for long weekends for the arts and shopping — and offer Louisville residents a leisurely way to travel to Chicago.
But significant ridership on the daily train between Louisville and Chicago never materialized, falling to 20,707 last year from 29,000 the year before, Cantillon said.
The trip between Louisville and Chicago took 11 hours because the portion of the track between Indianapolis and Louisville is old and trains can’t travel faster than 30 mph. A airplane trip to Chicago takes an hour, and driving takes about five hours.
The Cardinal will cease operations in early June, unless state government agrees to subsidize the train, according to a letter that Amtrak sent to Gov. Paul Patton last week.
”Despite four years of hard work to build the market for express (service), the potential for growth has not materialized,” David Gunn, Amtrak’s president and chief executive officer, wrote to Patton.
State government will not provide a subsidy, a spokesman for Patton said yesterday. ”Obviously, due to our budget situation, the governor plans no expansion of services or any new programs,” Rusty Cheuvront said.
A recent congressional study concluded that Amtrak loses nearly $200 for every passenger that the Cardinal carries between Chicago and Louisville. Amtrak lost $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2001 — and only two of its 41 lines turned a profit, according to records.
Barry Barker, executive director of the Transit Authority of River City, said yesterday that he wasn’t aware that Amtrak had decided to discontinue the Cardinal.
If city leaders knew the service would last only four years, they likely wouldn’t have spent money laying track and improving Union Station to bring Amtrak back to Louisville, Barker said.
But now that the track is in place and connected with other railroads in Louisville, it could be used for other purposes, such as shuttling people between downtown and Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium during major events such as Thunder Over Louisville, he said.
”The city took a chance, and it was a bold move,” Barker said.
Amtrak service returned to the Louisville area Dec. 18, 1999, when the Cardinal arrived in Jeffersonville, Ind., greeted by 200 cheering citizens, elected officials and Santa Claus handing out candy canes. The train began crossing the river into Louisville’s downtown Union Station in December 2001.