(The following article by Melissa Allison was posted on the Chicago Tribune website on January 13.)
CHICAGO — After more than a decade, Midwest Airlines finally is getting the Amtrak station it hopes will bring more Chicago-area passengers to Milwaukee, where it is the largest carrier.
By this time next year, customers from Chicago’s northern suburbs should be able to hop on a train in Glenview and arrive just outside Gen. Mitchell International Airport about 45 minutes later. A train ticket is expected to run between $15 and $20.
The idea for an Amtrak station at the airport came from executives at Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines about 13 years ago. The $6.5 million in federal funding to get the job done came in legislation over the past two years.
It is hard to know which is more excited, Midwest Airlines officials or the State of Wisconsin, as each stands to gain financially.
“Hopefully it will make travel more attractive out of Milwaukee, and make Milwaukee a more attractive destination,” said Ron Adams, director of Wisconsin’s bureau of railroads and harbors.
Midwest Airlines, which has undergone substantial changes over the past year to stay afloat, hopes the station will be as appealing to North Shore residents as Midway International Airport on Chicago’s Southwest Side, a 45-minute drive from Glenview in light traffic.
The carrier flies from Milwaukee to roughly 20 major cities nationwide, including Boston, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., as well as a couple dozen regional airports in the Midwest.
Last year Midwest added a low-fare service for leisure destinations.
Chicagoans wanting to fly out of Milwaukee also will be able to board Amtrak in downtown Chicago, but Midwest Airlines has its eye primarily on North Shore customers. Midwest generates more than 6 percent of its customers from northern Illinois.
Like other airlines, Midwest has renegotiated contracts with creditors and workers to cut costs and avoid filing for bankruptcy.
Now, Midwest executives want to generate revenue partly by negotiating a deal with Amtrak that would allow customers to use one ticket for their rail and air travel.
“It’s a pretty slick way to make your itinerary,” said Randy Smith, Midwest’s head of sales and distribution.
The airline allows customers to use their Amtrak travel for frequent-flier miles.
Midwest also would like its passengers to be able to check their bags in downtown Chicago or Glenview and pick them up at their final airport destination.
Airlines have done such code-sharing with bus and train companies in the past but with varying degrees of success.
Currently, Amtrak shares tickets with Continental Airlines passengers flying in and out of Newark, N.J.
Customers are able to use one ticket for their entire trip and receive frequent-flier miles for their rail travel, but they are not able to check their bags all the way through, said Continental spokesman Rahsaan Johnson.
“It would have been almost impossible logistically,” Johnson said, particularly because airports have more stringent security measures than train stations.
The Newark station, which opened in October 2001, was meant to ease travel between Newark and New York City. But the code-share with Amtrak also attracts a few dozen Continental passengers each day coming from and going to Philadelphia; Wilmington, Del.; and Stamford and New Haven, Conn., Johnson said.
Midwest Airlines officials declined to say how many new customers they hope to gain after the new train station opens.
But Adams estimates that the new station will add about 20,000 rail passengers each year to the 420,000 customers who travel the Milwaukee/Chicago route.