Amtrak Plans $300-Million Station Upgrades

Are states along Amtrak’s busy New York-Chicago and Washington DC-Chicago Corridors due for an increase in service?

That seems to be the aim of Amtrak’s just announced five-year, $300 million Great Lakes Stations Improvement initiative: which represents the first time in Amtrak’s 53-year history that it has pursued such an aggressive development effort for region.

The plan is calling for significant upgrades to platforms and station facilities currently used by the New York-Chicago “Lake Shore Limited and the Washington DC-Chicago “Capitol Limited”. Among the upgrades:

• Erie, PA: Rebuild second platform for full-length trains plus other improvements.
• Cleveland, OH: New station with additional tracks and platform place.
• Elyria, OH: Not mentioned. An Amtrak-funded move to a trackside platform and vertical access at Lorain County Transportation Center is already in the works.
• Sandusky, OH: Dual platforms with grade-separated access.
• Toledo, OH: Reactivation of overhead concourse bridge with upgrades to tracks and platforms.
• Bryan, OH: Add second platform.
• Waterloo, IN: Add second platform.
• Elkhart, IN: Not mentioned. Station received a new platform and walkways in 2017.
• South Bend, IN: Relocate existing station to Downtown.
• Hammond-Whiting, IN: Trackwork realignment and add second platform, enabling long-distance trains to stop.

“An expansion of Amtrak service is exciting news for all communities along these two heavily-traveled routes and opens the potential for daylight service to Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania cities that currently see trains come and go in the wee hours of the night or early morning”, says Lake Shore spokesman Bill Hutchison. He says this shows the Federal Railroad Administration is serious in pushing for more and faster trains along Amtrak’s long-distance routes.

“All of these stations need not only a second, active platform, but easier ways for passengers, especially those with disabilities or older passengers, to get from one track to the other safely,” says Hutchison

In its fiscal year 2025 budget request to Congress, Amtrak spelled out a number of capital improvement programs it wants in order to improve service, safety and efficiency. Amtrak ridership is, so far in fiscal year 2024 (started Oct. 1, 2023), exceeding its record high achieved in pre-pandemic 2019. The capital improvements are part of its plan to double its ridership nationwide by the end of 2040.

For this reason, the Lakeshore Rail Alliance is asking everyone along these routes to call, write or email their Members of Congress urging them to support Amtrak’s 2025 Budget Request.