Hoosier State (train)

Hoosier State

The Hoosier State is the only short-haul train featuring full dining service, and business class patrons dine in a vintage dome car
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Operating
First service	1 October 1980
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Ridership	119 per train 37,249 total (FY11)[1]
Route
Start	Chicago
Stops	4
End	Indianapolis
Distance travelled	196 miles (315 km)
Service frequency	Quad-weekly
Train number(s)	850/851
Technical
Track owner(s)	CSXT, UP, BRC Metra, NS
Route map Legend Dist. Station 0 mi Chicago Illinois Indiana 29 mi 47 km Dyer 75 mi 121 km Rensselaer 122 mi 196 km Lafayette 149 mi 240 km Crawfordsville 196 mi 315 km Indianapolis Cardinal to New York Note: = flag stop

The Hoosier State is an Amtrak passenger train that provides service on a 196-mile (315 km) route from Chicago to Indianapolis. It runs on the four days each week that the Cardinal does not run (departs Chicago Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; departs Indianapolis Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). This gives the Chicago-to-Indianapolis market daily rail service. Iowa Pacific Holdings furnishes rolling stock and on-board service personnel. Operation of the train is subsidized by Indiana.

Improvements to the service since INDOT contracted with Iowa Pacific include full-dining service and business-class service. As a result, revenue for FY 2016 for the period October 2015-July 2016 is up 32.8% from the prior year.^[2] After the service improvements took hold, ridership began increasing and was up 5.8% in July 2016 over the previous July.^[3]

History

Prior to Amtrak, the Chicago-Indianapolis market was served by several daily trains, the Pennsylvania Railroad's South Wind and Kentuckian, and the New York Central's James Whitcomb Riley, Indianapolis Special, and Sycamore. With the creation of Amtrak, riders between the Hoosier State's capital and the Windy City were served by the South Wind and the George Washington/James Whitcomb Riley.^[4] However, with Penn Central's financial instability, track maintenance was rare, and Amtrak shifted both trains to other routes through Indiana, leaving Indianapolis to be served only by the National Limited, which ran between New York and Kansas City.

The National Limited's discontinuance in 1979 severed Indianapolis from the national rail network, and isolated Amtrak's Beech Grove Shops in the Indianapolis suburb of Beech Grove. The passenger carrier had been using the National Limited to ferry railroad cars to and from its shops; it was forced to run special trains to Indianapolis instead.^[4]

The first northbound Hoosier State on October 3, 1980

The Hoosier State entered service on October 1, 1980. On April 27, 1986, the Cardinal was rerouted to use the same tracks as the Hoosier State between Chicago and Indianapolis, and began running on days the Cardinal did not operate. The Hoosier State was restored to daily operation on a separate schedule from the Cardinal on October 25, 1987.^[5] But funding cuts led to its discontinuance on September 8, 1995 while the Cardinal continued tri-weekly operation between Chicago, Indianapolis and the East Coast. Amtrak restored the Hoosier State on July 19, 1998, as a tri-, later quad-weekly train.^[6]

From December 17, 1999, to July 4, 2003, the Hoosier State was extended south from Indianapolis to Louisville, Kentucky, and renamed the Kentucky Cardinal. After the discontinuance of the Kentucky Cardinal the Hoosier State returned to operating four days a week in tandem with the Cardinal.

On October 16, 2008, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) was signed into law which required the operating and capital costs of providing intercity rail passenger service on Amtrak routes of not more than 750 miles, be born by the affected state or states within five years.^[7][8] At a length of 196 miles (315 km), the Hoosier State is one of the routes affected by this provision of PRIIA. The State of Indiana became responsible for funding the Hoosier State beginning on October 1, 2013. Faced with termination of a service that would have left Chicago to Indianapolis with tri-weekly train service, state and local officials arrived at a deal to share the US$3,000,000 annual cost of the service, becoming the last state in the nation to arrive at a deal to save its short-distance train line on October 15, 2013.^[9][10]

Indiana sought alternatives to Amtrak operation and on June 24, 2014 selected Corridor Capitol, a Chicago-based rail passenger services development company, as its preferred vendor to manage and operate the service. Planning was underway for the company to take over the service as early as October 1, 2014. However, Corridor Capitol did not meet that deadline and Indiana DOT discontinued negotiations with the company in November 2014.^[11] Amtrak continued to operate the train service under short-term contract extensions while the state considers alternative vendors.

On March 6, 2015, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) announced that the Hoosier State would discontinue service on April 1, 2015. The decision was made due to regulations of the Federal Railroad Administration that would require the state of Indiana to act as a rail carrier, despite the state owning no tracks or trains; that requirement would, according to INDOT, increase the cost to Indiana taxpayers for no additional benefit.^[12][13] After Indiana appealed to the FRA, the train's operation was extended to April 30.^[14] Amtrak continued to operate the Hoosier State under a short-term agreement while negotiations continued.^[15] On August 2, 2015, the Hoosier State began running with Iowa Pacific equipment and on-board service personnel. Amtrak provides ticketing services and train operating crews (engineers, conductors and assistant conductors).^[16] Both companies are under contract to the INDOT.^[17]

Route details

The Hoosier State operates over Amtrak, CSX Transportation, Union Pacific Railroad, Metra, and Norfolk Southern trackage:

• CSX Indianapolis Subdivision, Indianapolis Terminal Subdivision, Crawfordsville Branch Subdivision, Monon Subdivision, and Eldson Subdivision Indianapolis to Thornton
• UP Villa Grove Subdivision, Thornton to 80th Street
• BRC, 80th Street Interlocking
• Metra SouthWest Service, 80th Street to 21st Street.
• NS Chicago Line, CP518 to 21st Street.

Train consist

The Hoosier State generally operates with Iowa Pacfic owned ex-Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Big Dome Summit View and three passenger cars, with power provided by a fleet of three ex-NJT GP40FH-2 diesel locomotives.^[18] Prior to Iowa Pacific providing rolling stock, the Hoosier State operated with two coaches, generally Horizon equipment, but occasionally supplemented by Amfleet cars. Power was a General Electric Genesis P42DC locomotive. There were no food-service cars, and the train offered only coach-class service.^[19]

Interpretive Guides

In October 2016, the American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation announced that it would be partnering with the Indiana Department of Transportation and Iowa Pacific Holdings to have its Rail Rangers Interpretive Guides on select departures of the Hoosier State, effective November 27, 2016. Guides ride between Lafayette, Indiana and Chicago Union Station on select Sunday morning departures of the northbound Hoosier State providing commentary about Indiana history and scenery. Guides with the non-profit provide passengers with free route guide sheets and Chicago maps, plus have an Indiana-themed junior ranger program available for children and teens. The Rail Rangers' new "Riding the Hoosier Rails" program takes place approximately two to three weekends per month. ^[20] The APRHF Rail Rangers primarily provide programs aboard private passenger rail excursions. The group sprung from a now-defunct APRHF-sponsored Trails & Rails program that operated on the Southwest Chief between Chicago and La Plata, Missouri from May 2013 to July 2015.

Station stops

Notes

References

• Sanders, Craig (2006). Amtrak in the Heartland. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34705-X. OCLC 61499942. 
• Schafer, Mike (1991). All Aboard Amtrak: 1971-1991. Piscataway, NJ: Railpace. ISBN 0-9621-5414-8. 

Further reading

• Johnston, Bob (March 2016). "Hoosier State reflects a new approach". Trains. 76 (3). 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hoosier State (train).

• Official site (Iowa Pacific)
• Hoosier State on Amtrak.com