Amtrak Reaches Out To Bicyclists, Pet Owners And Those Who Stay Out Late

Amtrak officials said their new programs to make it more convenient for passengers to take along bicycles and pets are partly designed to respond to stagnant or declining ridership numbers.

The passenger rail service unveiled the bicycle promotion this week for Hiawatha Service between Milwaukee and Chicago and seemed to get a thumbs up from bicycle advocates.

Ken Leinbach, of the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee, took his bike on the train on Wednesday morning to make it easier to get to a meeting a half hour away from Union Station in Chicago.

“I like my bike. So, for me, it’s a better way to go,” he said.

Leinbach said that various ride-sharing options in Chicago have drawbacks.

“I got surprised by Uber’s prices the other day, when I got caught up in a ‘surge.’ A bike is free, and cabs and Ubers and all that in Chicago, aren’t,” said Leibach.

Taking a bike along on a Hiawatha train isn’t quite free. Amtrak charges $5 one-way. For that price, at trackside, a conductor will lift the bike from the passenger, and hang it on a hook in a storage area behind the train engine. At the destination, the conductor hands the bike down to the owner, and the bicyclist can wheel the bicycle through the terminal and be on his or her way. There’s only space for 15 bikes, per trip.

Amtrak official Derrick James said no longer making bicyclists take apart their bike and place it in a carton is an attempt to be responsive to the consumer.

“There’s been a lot of demand for this, so this will start to push us up again, in terms of ridership,” James said.

Nationally, Amtrak ridership slipped in 2015, to 30.8 million, a decline of 100,000 from the year before.

The bike program is being expanded to more Chicago-based trains soon, and James said it will be available on the Empire Builder line, which runs through Wisconsin, by about Labor Day.

Amtrak also this week allowed dog and cat owners to bring their pet along on Hiawatha trains, for a fee of $25, and requiring the animal be in a pet carrier.

However, James said Amtrak also faces competition from car drivers taking advantage of lower fuel prices.

“Gas prices are a factor, too,” said James. “You know, folks have many things they bring into making a decision on how to travel. We need to continue to be mindful of that, to keep them choosing the train.”

Acccording to Arun Rao, passenger rail manager at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Hiawatha ridership is staying steady, at about 800,000 per year. But he said Wisconsin and Illinois, which both provide major subsidies to Hiawatha service, are working with Amtrak on other ways to increase use. Rao said later this month, a late evening train on Saturday will be added each way.

“We did a trial in the fall holiday period last year, and we’re continuing that in the summer,” he said. “A lot of people going to entertainment options want to stay in Chicago or Milwaukee late for a show or dinner.”

Rao said the states and Amtrak are also closer to adding more daily round trips on Hiawatha, with work being done on an environmental assessment and service development plan that may eventually lead to a federal grant to pay for the expansion.

Rao said Wisconsin and Minnesota continue to look at a second Empire Builder train between Chicago and Minneapolis each day. Amtrak has completed a feasibility study and Rao said that planning will continue.

“The results were fairly positive. Positive enough that the two states found it was warranted to advance to the next stage of planning for that,” he said. “We are working with Minnesota on some initial work to toward an environmental analysis.”

Rao said that work includes looking at scheduling of the second train, railroad capacity and possible infrastructure improvements.

As far as high speed rail, something Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker derailed after he was elected in 2010, Rao said the focus is more on how to improve shorter lines that go in and out of Chicago, like Hiawatha.

The Chicago-based Midwest High Speed Rail Association continues to promote faster trains, and is leading a trip to Japan this year, to look at high-speed rail service there.