From the Detroit Free Press

U.S. Department of Transportation Press Release

Battle Creek Station Rehabilitation Project Funded by First Installment of $40 Million from Recovery Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced $3.6 million for the State of Michigan to begin work on the rehabilitation of the Battle Creek railroad station.  The Department of Transportation will ultimately provide a total of $40 million to Michigan under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for its high-speed intercity passenger rail program.

“President Obama’s bold vision for high-speed rail is a game-changer for transportation in Michigan and the United States,” said Secretary LaHood. “This undertaking will not only create good jobs and reinvigorate our manufacturing base, it’s also going to relieve congestion on our roadways and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

The $3.6 million in Recovery Act funds will be used to renovate the station’s interior lobby, bathrooms, ticketing areas and offices, lighting, signage, and to make the station Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant. 

The exterior of the station will also see significant upgrades.  The building will be refaced with new and restored masonry and new exterior lighting will be installed.  The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is actively working with the Michigan Department of Transportation on additional grant agreements to further develop the Detroit-Chicago route.

“Improving railroad infrastructure, including stations, is a vital part of our high-speed intercity passenger rail program,” said Federal Railroads Administrator Joseph C. Szabo. “The customer experience of train travel will be greatly enhanced by the station improvements, making rail an attractive option for travelers.”

FRA has released more than $591 million of the $8 billion down payment provided in the Recovery Act for the development of a national network of interconnected high-speed rail corridors.
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Source: http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/fra1410.html

From the Herald-Palladium

NEW BUFFALO – Most people dividing their time between Illinois and Southwest Michigan have their primary residence over there and a more modest second place over here.

Guy Ballard does it the other way around. And the new Amtrak service from downtown Chicago to New Buffalo helps make it possible.

“It’s so much easier for me now with the new service,” he said.

And there’s circumstantial evidence suggesting he’s not alone.

July ridership figures show a more than 300 percent rise in activity between 2009 and 2010 in New Buffalo.

The key difference is Amtrak moved its station last October from the Pere Marquette route on the city’s south side to the Wolverine and Blue Water routes, which travel over tracks downtown.

The Blue Water and Wolverine trains account for three stops daily from Chicago to New Buffalo. The Pere Marquette makes one stop from Chicago.

Ryan Fellows, assistant to the city manager, said until rider surveys are taken it can’t known for sure how many riders are Chicago commuters.

But when the number of people getting on or off in New Buffalo goes from 715 to 2,584 in a year, one can make a strong hypothesis.

“It’s a very easy leap of faith to make,” he said.

Leaders in Southwest Michigan communities served by Amtrak, from St. Joseph to Dowagiac, have stated hopes that their cities could become bedroom communities for the Chicago area.

New Buffalo leaders predicted the station shift would make New Buffalo more attractive to people like Ballard.

Ballard, the chief technology officer for the Niles Township High School District in Skokie, Ill., for the last 12 years, said he “fell in love” with the New Buffalo area about 10 years ago and ended up buying a nice house in the Timberlane section of New Buffalo.

The only downside is it’s about 85 miles from his office.

Daily commuting was out of the question, so he bought a small condo just north of downtown Chicago that he uses during the work week, returning to Michigan every weekend. For three years he’s been making the trip by rail instead of auto.

“I drive to work (from Chicago to Skokie) Monday through Thursday,” the educator said, “but on Fridays I take the ‘El’ (Chicago’s elevated train).”

That allows him to catch a Metra Rail commuter train that stops in nearby Morton Grove, Ill., for the 12-mile trip to downtown Chicago at the end of his work day.

The Metra line takes him directly to Union Station, on the west side of Chicago’s Loop, where he can transfer onto Amtrak’s 6 p.m. train to New Buffalo.

“I leave (work) at 4:45 (p.m. Central Standard Time), and I’ll be in New Buffalo by 8:30 (p.m. Eastern Standard Time),” Ballard said.

Amtrak’s schedule says 8:16, and Ballard concurs that the train is usually on time.

“The only choice I had (out of Chicago) was a 4 o’clock train (then the Pere Marquette), which required leaving work early to catch it,” Ballard said.

As for the commute itself, Ballard said he very much appreciates not having to drive back and forth between Illinois and Michigan, especially on summer weekends, when the highways are packed with motorists.

“The drive can be four hours of aggravation” he said. “On the train, I have an iPod if I want to listen to music and an iPad if I want to get some work done.”

That’s not to say that the train doesn’t get packed as well.

On a recent Sunday trip back to Illinois, Ballard said, the train was so full of what he presumed were day-trippers fro Chicago that some passengers had to sit in the cafe car for the 70-minute journey.

Even so, the educator remains sold on Amtrak: There’s no chance of getting stuck in traffic, and somebody else is doing the driving.

Ballard has a second vehicle in New Buffalo to get around.

SCHEDULE

Amtrak is adding trains for the Labor Day weekend between Southwest Michigan and Chicago, the rail passenger service announced.

From Thursday through Monday, there will be five trains running daily from Chicago to Kalamazoo rather than the normal three. Four will stop in New Buffalo, three will stop in Dowagiac and five will stop in Niles, according to the schedule Amtrak posted with its news release.

From Friday through Tuesday, five trains will run from Kalamazoo to Chicago. Four will stop in Niles and New Buffalo and three will stop in Dowagiac.

The news release and schedule can be found on New Buffalo’s website, www.cityofnewbuffalo.org/railroad.asp.

Source: http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/08/31/local_news/1841379.txt

From the South Bend Tribune

Need to be in Chicago early — say, 7:30 a.m. — and don’t want to drive? At least this weekend, Amtrak is making it possible for people who live in southwestern Michigan.

Rick Harnish, of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, announced today that Amtrak, over Labor Day weekend, will add on a test run basis a fifth train on its Chicago-Detroit corridor that will provide service between Chicago and Kalamazoo. Among the stops will be Niles and the beachfront station in New Buffalo.

According to Harnish, if enough riders respond to the new service, the new train could become permanent. And that would be good news for southwestern Michigan in general and Niles and New Buffalo in particular, said Lisa Croteau, program manager for Niles DDA Main Street, because of the potential impact on economic development.

“Right now, there’s nothing that gets you there (Chicago) that allows us to be a commuter location. The earliest you can get there from Niles is 11:59 a.m., Chicago (Central Standard) time, which is about 1 p.m. our time (Eastern Standard),’’ Croteau said. “With this new train, it gets you there for the work day. Or you could go to Chicago and shop, do dinner and take in an early show. ’’

Read more:
http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100831/News01/100839863

From the Niles Daily Star

Making a Labor Day weekend trip to Chicago just got a little easier for southwest Michigan residents.

Friday through Tuesday, Amtrak will be adding an additional early morning westbound train from Kalamazoo that will make stops in Niles and New Buffalo.

The train will leave Kalamazoo at 5:50 a.m., stop at Niles at 6:33 a.m. and arrive in Chicago at 7:30 a.m. Starting Thursday and ending Monday, an eastbound train will leave Chicago at 10 p.m. and stop in Niles at 12:41 a.m.

The additional run will allow riders to get to the Windy City earlier and leave later.

Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association in Chicago, is happy to see the additional route and would like to see it become permanent for convenient day trips.

“There’s very good market potential for a train to get people into Chicago before the beginning of the business day and one that leaves after a day of entertainment,” he said.

Harnish believes a new schedule pattern with five daily departures spread out throughout the day, including early morning trains from Michigan, would make travel between Chicago and southwest Michigan more practical.

From October 2009 through July 2010, more than 390,000 passengers rode the Chicago to Kalamazoo Amtrak route, up nearly 6 percent from the year before. July ridership jumped about 23 percent from July 2009, according to a recent Amtrak press release.

Harnish says riding trains is a growing trend throughout the country.

Last fiscal year, Amtrak serviced 27.2 million riders, the second-best year in company history.

“Driving is expensive and this reduces cost, and it’s more enjoyable,” he said. “You can talk on a cell phone, text, do work or even sleep, and you certainly can’t do that while driving.”

Harnish encourages people in southwest Michigan to take advantage of the weekend trips to show Amtrak it’s worth adding the early morning trains permanently.

“Niles becomes a more attractive place to live, do business and visit if the additional train service is there,” he said.

One-way adult tickets between Niles and Chicago start at $16.

Original source: http://www.nilesstar.com/2010/08/31/amtrak-to-test-chicago-early-run-this-weekend/