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/