Students and East Lansing residents may soon have to go further down the road for personal railway service.
About 40 people braved freezing temperatures Saturday afternoon to participate in a rally to protest the loss of ticket agents and possible route closing.
As of today, East Lansing's Amtrak rail passenger station, located at 1240 S. Harrison Ave., will lose its ticket agent. The station has been open since1974.
The building itself will remain open, and the Greyhound portion will continue operating, but Amtrak customers will not have a ticket agent at the location.
Without an agent available, passengers will not be able to create new reservations or receive update information on trains. Passengers can still be serviced by Amtrak's Web site, calling (800)USA-RAIL, ticket-by-mail program, local travel agents or ticket machines.
But there are other complications looming in the station's future - the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $1.2 billion for the system's 2003 fiscal year last August, but if the funding level needed is below that amount, Amtrak will shut down the Toronto-Chicago route, which includes stops in East Lansing, after March 31.
Participants carried large signs with messages such as "Keep our stations staffed!" and "Save our trains!" written on them.
Music education senior Cary Vincent said the rally was crucial in increasing support for Amtrak and its passengers.
"For some, this is the only way they can travel," he said. "It's important having an alternative source of public transportation, other than relying on an airplane."
Jerald Fowler, a regular train user, traveled all the way from his Battle Creek home to participate in the rally.
"Without protests, nothing will happen," he said. "The government should give Amtrak more money."
David Johnson, an Okemos resident and Midwest regional vice president for Johnson and Sternfeld Consulting, organized the rally with several other concerned citizens and regular train users.
"The disabled won't have assistance. People will be in the dark," he said. "The elimination of ticket agents here could be the precursor to more cuts and the trains being gone."
Johnson said college students will not have easy access to faster service.
"College students have to pay a $9 FedEx fee to have tickets mailed to them," he said.
The East Lansing station is served by Capital Area Transportation Authority as well as Greyhound and Indian Trails intercity buses and administered by the Capital Area Rail Council, a Michigan nonprofit corporation created to promote the use of a rail passenger station in the Lansing metropolitan area. Trains operate once daily in each direction between Chicago and Toronto, via East Lansing, Port Huron and Stratford, Ontario.
Amtrak provides intercity services to more than 500 communities in the United States.
According to a report by the Maryland branch of Johnson and Sternfeld Consulting, 26,719 passengers traveled through the East Lansing Amtrak station in 2001, generating nearly $800,000 in ticket sales.
Gary Parrott, a member of the Capital Area Rail Council, said the loss of ticket agents changes service.
"It's an inconvenience to passengers," he said. "It leaves out the extra amount of attention station agents can give. That will have an impact."
John DeLora, executive director of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers, said the ticket agent's elimination is due to budget issues and the set amount the state of Michigan pays to keep Amtrak stations running.
"Amtrak is forced to make demands on states to help them out instead of covering the direct cost of operation," DeLora said. "I think it's foolish (to get rid of ticket agents). If revenue drops more, the cost of subsidizing will increase. I'm afraid it will cost more to operate the train system."
DeLora said the closing affects everyone using the station's services because there are fewer flying options in mid-size cities such as East Lansing.
"My intent is to make legislators know how serious this is," he said.
