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Hoosier State expanding to Cincinnati?

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Posted by schlimm on Friday, March 20, 2015 8:06 PM

Brian Schmidt

 

 
oltmannd
The Cardinal is scheduled 8:32 from Chicago to Cincy.  37 mph.  It's a 4:30 drive.  The train is not very useful.

 

I'll take a slower train that allows me to do things other than focus on driving for four hours. If I take a six-hour train ride and work four hours, then the net loss is only two hours. If I drive that same trip in four hours, I've still lost four hours.

 

 
Spend 8:32 on a train (plus more time to get origination station and from end station to final destination) and you have killed the day.  Spend 4:30 driving and you still have 4+ hours for business, fun or visiting people.  Not rocket science.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

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Posted by Brian Schmidt on Friday, March 20, 2015 9:46 AM

oltmannd
The Cardinal is scheduled 8:32 from Chicago to Cincy.  37 mph.  It's a 4:30 drive.  The train is not very useful.

I'll take a slower train that allows me to do things other than focus on driving for four hours. If I take a six-hour train ride and work four hours, then the net loss is only two hours. If I drive that same trip in four hours, I've still lost four hours.

Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, March 19, 2015 11:53 AM

oltmannd

The Cardinal is scheduled 8:32 from Chicago to Cincy.  37 mph.  It's a 4:30 drive.  The train is not very useful.

4 hour 30 minute drive - IF - you don't get caught in traffic on the Interstates in and around the Chicago area.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by dakotafred on Thursday, March 19, 2015 11:33 AM

Deggesty

It's amazing what a man who likes to ride trains was willing to put up with

 
I enjoyed this post hugely, having engineered many such monstrosities myself in the old days.
 
We sure died hard, didn't we?
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Posted by oltmannd on Thursday, March 19, 2015 10:43 AM

The Cardinal is scheduled 8:32 from Chicago to Cincy.  37 mph.  It's a 4:30 drive.  The train is not very useful.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, March 19, 2015 10:26 AM

Paul, I agree. Even before the PC came into being, the service had gone downhill drastically. Forty-four years ago, the traffic was not there.

In the spring of 1969, I had planned a trip which would take me, along with other routes, from Washington to St. Louis on the C&O-B&O, thence to Chicago on the former Wabash, and overnight to Cincinnati. Going into Cincinnati, I thought I should look to make sure that the overnight train from Chicago still ran--and I found that it had been abolished. So, I took the C&O to Detroit and what was left of the Cincinnatian to Cincinnati. It's amazing what a man who likes to ride trains was willing to put up with

Johnny

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, March 19, 2015 9:58 AM

It would appear that the source implied by the OP was indulging in some wishful thinking.  A realistic Chicago-Cincinnati service hasn't existed since prior to Penn Central.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by D.Carleton on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 8:40 PM

No.

Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak

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Hoosier State expanding to Cincinnati?
Posted by zkr123 on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 3:42 PM

I recently read that the Hoosier State may expand to Cincy. Would that help save the service? 

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