After looking at the May 1, 1971 Amtrak map (with trains leaving Indianapolis in five directions daily) it makes me sad to see what's happened to passenger rail in Indiana.
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/10282/the-evolution-of-amtrak-1971-2011/
The Beech Grove shops must have seemed like an extremely logical location when the National Limited was running.
I really do think the Hoosier State should be nurtured and expanded. But what do you do when the state government is completely unsupportive?
Indiana did nothing when the Cardinal and the Floridian were rerouted away from Indianapolis. When the _National Limited_ was cut in the Carter cuts, Missouri stepped in to save the St. Louis - Kansas City route. Indiana did nothing. When the Cardinal was cut to three-a-week, Indiana did nothing. When the Hoosier State was cut last time (1995-1998)... Indiana did nothing. Nor did Indiana do anything when Fort Wayne service was lost, or when the Valparaiso Local was cut -- when Pete Viscolsky put a special provision into federal law to give Indiana extra time to decide to spend the *$1.5 million* to keep it going, and the state of Indiana declined to do so.
The only counteracting points: Indiana did set up and fund NICTD to run the South Shore Line service in 1977; NICTD started operating trains itself in 1989 (extremely late compared to other commuter rail operations) and bought the tracks in 1990.
For contrast, one can look at many, many other states. Indiana has been exceptionally unsupportive of passenger rail. I guess it's doing more than Ohio, though. :-(
