A reminder about the Rally for Rail on April 3, 2009. Â A flyer, shown above has been put together as well as a short video clip of Dr. Tom Hayhurst. Â The flyer may be downloaded by clicking on the above image. Â The video is below. Â If you’d like to see passenger rail service back in town, please make plans to attend the Rally for Rail.
httpsv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnJ48KXWiZQ
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If Fort Wayne residents really support rail transportation, why don’t they use the existing routes? I take the Amtrak train to Chicago out of Waterloo a couple times a year. Very nice ride and convenient. However, there are never more than a handful of people getting on or off at that station. Why would Amtrak want to come to Fort Wayne if only a few people will use it? Why do you think they moved the station to Waterloo in the first place? No one was getting on in Fort Wayne and they saved a bunch of fuel by going direct from Toledo to Chicago. I am 100% in favor of Fort Wayne rail, but we should encourage use of existing routes if we are really in favor of “going green”. Lastly, half of Fort Wayne will be in Florida on spring break on April 3, having taken air or auto, as there are no train routes even close to getting you to Florida.
Who wants to drive to Waterloo and leave a car parked unattended? Also the fact that it’s basically a bus hut with nothing around speaks volumes about it’s under utilization. When they first rerouted through Waterloo, I traveled by Amtrak quite a few times. Amtrak provided a bus ride to Waterloo early on. But again, who wants to leave their car, or even have friends or family drive you up there to wait on a train that may or probably won’t be on time? I don’t think they’ve had a lot of problems at that station, but it still is not what I would consider the safest of situations to place myself into.
At least if I’m catching the train here in town, I can call, get updates on it’s progress and delay having to leave for the station by that much more time.
It doesn’t sound like you’re 100% in favor if all you’re going to do is find reasons not to do this.
As to half of Fort Wayne being in Florida for spring break, it must be the half I don’t socialize with because everyone I know that has kids is staying in town or taking a short drive to their destination. If you’re talking about all the teenagers and college students, are they really the ones who would support the rally no matter the date?
A poll on this site revealed that a majority of people would utilize passenger rail service if it were available in Fort Wayne. I have enabled the results in the above post.
I just had a friend take a trip Northeast via the Waterloo station. Since he was leaving for a job, he had to be dropped off. His family had a hard time finding the place since they had never been there before and the train was coming in at about 2am. For everyone who has been to the Waterloo station, I’m sure many agree that this is not a place they would want to be sitting for an hour or more waiting for a train at that time of day. If we get rail service and have it based out of downtown I think there might be more options than sitting in a dark alley waiting. If all of the work downtown pays off and we establish a nightlife there, one could go for a drink at 2am while waiting for their train, then walk to the station. Perhaps, if life downtown booms Powers might open 24 hours again, and then you could grab a couple burgers before your trip (this last part is just my desire to see Powers increase their hours, but you never know).
Thank you, Jeremy! Well put. It really is a shame that we do not have the ability to catch a train from right here, inside the Fort. Hopefully this will become a reality again!