Amtrak tells Oxford (OH) to continue plans for train stop

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Lakeshore

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Amtrak says a Butler County city and a university should continue working on plans for a passenger train stop following an internal analysis of ridership numbers.



Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari tells the Hamilton-Middletown Journal-News that it may make business sense to create a stop in Oxford.

City officials are now working to identify five or six potential sites for the stop.

http://www.wlwt.com/news/amtrak-tells-oxford-to-continue-plans-for-train-stop/33165168
 
On the one hand, I question the need to add a stop that will occur at approximately 2:30 a.m. in either direction. I mean, how much demand can there actually be? [Yes, I know it's a college town...but even a college isn't going to generate that much traffic for a 3x/week middle-of-the-night train.]

OTOH, given the ultra low ridership figures at some of the other Cardinal stations, I suspect an Oxford stop would hold its own, comparatively speaking. And building a station would at least make future expansion more possible (i.e. for a daytime Cincy-CHI train).
 
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I hope a stop in Oxford happens. And, while they are planning for a station, I hope some provision might also be made for long term parking. In Cincinnati at the station, there is no long term parking (although there is room for such) and it is a hassle to park at a downtown parking garage and get to and from the station via taxi, particularly in the wee hours of the morning.
 
Wasn't there a station in Hamilton that was closed in the last maybe 10ish years?
The closing of the Hamilton station is what has allowed the Oxford project to move forward. In this past Amtrak had stated that Oxford was too close to Hamilton to add an additional stop on the Cardinal. Now this is no longer an issue.
 
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On the one hand, I question the need to add a stop that will occur at approximately 2:30 a.m. in either direction. I mean, how much demand can there actually be? [Yes, I know it's a college town...but even a college isn't going to generate that much traffic for a 3x/week middle-of-the-night train.]

OTOH, given the ultra low ridership figures at some of the other Cardinal stations, I suspect an Oxford stop would hold its own, comparatively speaking. And building a station would at least make future expansion more possible (i.e. for a daytime Cincy-CHI train).
in Toledo, OH the schedule is like this: 30 comes in at 11:49P, 48 at 3:20A, 29 at about 508A, and 49 at 555A... Station is open 10PM-1PM next day, not during the day. Toledo still has the highest revenue in Ohio...
 
Is Oxford, OH a good choice for another station, even if the proposed new station facility is a canopy-like structure with no restroom and the train calls at early-morning hours? Here is a really positive point:

With Dayton, OH at a 140, 000 population and the surrounding tri-county Miami Valley Area at over an 841,000 population and essentially 20 minutes or less by car to the newly-proposed Oxford Station (much closer than driving into Cincinnati) there is reason to believe that creating a new stop is a good choice.

Bear in mind that in the northern Cincinnati area including the Miami Valley Area and several other counties there are over 1,000,000 people, many of whom are potential riders. Since an abundance of public transportation is not available in the region, these folks are used to driving longer distances, so a 20 minute trip to an Amtrak station isn't a big deal for most people.

If Amtrak does a solid marketing job presenting the new service option for the region, the station at Oxford OH could be a success.
 
I hope a stop in Oxford happens. And, while they are planning for a station, I hope some provision might also be made for long term parking. In Cincinnati at the station, there is no long term parking (although there is room for such) and it is a hassle to park at a downtown parking garage and get to and from the station via taxi, particularly in the wee hours of the morning.
Dakota, there is long term parking at CUT.Pull in parking lot and park under the street light on the lot closest to the terminal on the right.Go in side and register with security on you left when you get inside.Have your plate # and name etc. and you are good to go.You do have to pay to park but I don't know the going rate.There will be other cars there and the gate is open.I would suggest dropping off passenger and luggage at the front door first.It is a long walk.
 
The article pointed out that over 1000 students at Miami University come from Illinois, and many more come from Indiana. Having a car on campus is extremely problematic, so having a train available to get to and from Chicago, Cincinnati, etc. is a great idea.
 
What I was trying to add to the conversation is it doesn't really matter the time of the trains, people will still take the train.
 
The three-a-week schedule for the Cardinal will continue to hamstring stops in this area. :-( With daily service, it could be a very useful stop.
 
What I was trying to add to the conversation is it doesn't really matter the time of the trains, people will still take the train.

The three-a-week schedule for the Cardinal will continue to hamstring stops in this area. :-( With daily service, it could be a very useful stop.
College student's aren't likely to care too much about the train's scheduled times, as they're up late anyway. But if they're on their way to or from school, the three-days-a-week schedule will often be impossible to use.
 
On the one hand, I question the need to add a stop that will occur at approximately 2:30 a.m. in either direction. I mean, how much demand can there actually be? [Yes, I know it's a college town...but even a college isn't going to generate that much traffic for a 3x/week middle-of-the-night train.]

OTOH, given the ultra low ridership figures at some of the other Cardinal stations, I suspect an Oxford stop would hold its own, comparatively speaking. And building a station would at least make future expansion more possible (i.e. for a daytime Cincy-CHI train).
in Toledo, OH the schedule is like this: 30 comes in at 11:49P, 48 at 3:20A, 29 at about 508A, and 49 at 555A... Station is open 10PM-1PM next day, not during the day. Toledo still has the highest revenue in Ohio...
And we Clevelanders have to get up even earlier. The station is generally full of passengers at 1:20-5:30am. If you build it, they will come :p
 
Especially if this stop were added (and/or a Thruway to Dayton added to it), I have to wonder what the economics of extending the Hoosier State to CIN would look like. No, I don't expect to see Indiana (or Ohio) diving for that next week, but I have to wonder what the difference would be in terms of operating cost and ridership versus what exists right now. Put another way, with several major cities located not-too-horridly far away, I have to wonder if an extension of daily service to Cincy wouldn't actually reduce operating losses (especially since CIN/Oxford-IND becomes a meaningful city pair). This does, of course, go double if you can actually get decent-hour service somehow.

On a more limited basis, I have to wonder whether you could get a bump in ridership if you could guarantee an extra few trains on top of the 3x weekly operation around the start/end of classes in those areas.
 
If you were to extend to Cincy, leaving the Hoosier State on its current 4 day a week mirror of the Cardinal schedule, you would need an additional trainset. Going east arrival is just after 3:00 AM and going west departure is around 1:30 AM. Granted you could alter the times, but running it as a stand alone service on its own timetable would likely create the need for it to be a 7 day a week service, dramatically increasing costs.
 
If you were to extend to Cincy, leaving the Hoosier State on its current 4 day a week mirror of the Cardinal schedule, you would need an additional trainset. Going east arrival is just after 3:00 AM and going west departure is around 1:30 AM. Granted you could alter the times, but running it as a stand alone service on its own timetable would likely create the need for it to be a 7 day a week service, dramatically increasing costs.
You need two sets (or a deadhead run) as-is. That's one thing that has caused a bit of heartburn, IIRC, in terms of Iowa Pacific's planned operations.
 
I used to use Hamilton stop all the time - way more convenient than Cincy - and my memory there was free parking. Oxfdord does make sense (although more inconvenient for me) and I will continue to drive to GBB to catch the CZ and SWC
 
College student's aren't likely to care too much about the train's scheduled times, as they're up late anyway. But if they're on their way to or from school, the three-days-a-week schedule will often be impossible to use.
Especially when there is intercity bus service that leaves from the Miami U campus to places like Cleveland, Detroit, Indy and Chicago, and is based around

college students' travel patterns.

http://miamioh.edu/about-miami/visiting-miami/transportation/

With options like those, it's hard to imagine a 3x/week train is going to pick up much college traffic. The stop may well hold its own for other reasons outlined on this thread, but the college itself is not going to be the anchor point for this service.
 
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