From the Dowagiac Herald-Palladium
Ron Leatz, 68, the host of the Dowagiac Amtrak station, has been volunteering with the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers for three years. He met with Herald-Palladium Staff Writer Kate Genellie to talk about what a station host does and the appeal of train travel.
Why did you join MARP?
I’ve always been a railroad fan. I’ve been to the West Coast eight or nine times on the Super Chief. Less than a month ago I went to Lancaster, Pa., on the train. Back in December I came from New York City. I use the train.
What’s the longest distance you’ve traveled by train?
From here to L.A. Forty-one hours.
You’re the host of the Dowagiac Amtrak Station. What does that mean?
We have two trains that come through. One’s called the Bluewater, one’s called the Wolverine. We have two Bluewater and two Wolverine trains that stop here.
This is an unstaffed Amtrak facility. As a volunteer with (MARP) … I take care of all the Amtrak literature. It’s sent to my home and I bring it down. We also put up the baggage tags.
The other thing we do, since we’re in the MARP, we get information from other things. We also are the only group that has Michigan information at Union Station in Chicago. All our trains terminate in Chicago. We put information, literature in the rack there. Because of that, we find out information that’s sitting right behind me here. We have a map of downtown Chicago.
The other thing I do – because the Dial-A-Ride office is dispatched out of here and it’s open 8 to 5, and the Chamber of Commerce is open 8 to 5 – if I’m available, I come down for the 7:04 p.m. train from Chicago. And I come down on weekends. I unlock the station. We have restrooms, we have a drinking fountain. It’s not a lot, but it’s better than them sitting out in the snowbank.
From 2009 to 2010, ridership at the Dowagiac station has increased 36 percent. Why is that?
The advantage we have now is parents who have students at Michigan State. At 7 at night we have a train that goes to East Lansing. At 10:30 in the morning we have a train that goes to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Either one of those trains will get you to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. So the parents are finding out that instead of driving all the way over there – especially now that we’ve completed winter and the icy, snowy conditions and gasoline now is jumping up like crazy – once their student gets on that train, they’re safe, they’re sound.
They get to the university, they get off the train, and Mom and Dad have been home for an hour or two or three, instead of having to turn around and drive back. We get a lot of college kids.
I had a gentleman from Buchanan come in here, and his daughter was going to Michigan State. She was going to be a freshman. There was a little wondering, you know, she hadn’t been away from home.
And I said, “We’re running 95 miles an hour. What’s going to happen? You think she’s going to jump off the train? Once the conductor closes the door, it’s closed.”
Why do you enjoy train travel?
The seats are twice as wide as on an airplane. The other thing, every train in Michigan has a cafe car. The one amazing part about Amtrak is a dining car table holds four people. You make a reservation, and all of a sudden you and I, who have never seen each other before, are sitting there having dinner, having breakfast, having lunch. It creates camaraderie among all the passengers. You know, you sit on an airplane for hours – I went to Saudi Arabia 10 years ago – you don’t talk to nobody.
If a lady comes on the train with a baby, that baby’s entertained and so are all the passengers passing that baby around the car. It just happens.
You socialize with people on the train.
The train I took to Pennsylvania goes down in the valley of the Appalachian Mountains. You’re following the river all the way, and the thing you have to remember is the railroads have been there a long time. In Pennsylvania you have the mountains, and the railroads basically follow the rivers. Because of that, you’re in an area you don’t see in a car. You may be five miles from any highway.
Some people pick up a book and they read from the time they get on to the time they get off. If I take a new route, I’m always looking out the window.
Source: http://theh-p.com/articles/2011/03/21/local_news/3933858.txt#blogcomments