All aboard in Ann Arbor: What Ohio can learn from Michigan when it comes to Amtrak service

ANN ARBOR, Michigan – So this is what it’s like to board the train when the sun is up.

Granted, I haven’t taken Amtrak from Cleveland too many times, in part because the trains come through town in the middle of the night.

In Michigan, it’s different, with regular train service crisscrossing the state during all hours of the day.

I traveled to Ann Arbor, the state’s busiest station, to find out more.

What I discovered on my early-morning route to Chicago: A sold-out train, traveling at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour, filled with students, families and business travelers.

Among them: a couple of University of Michigan students traveling to Chicago to see a concert; a dad who was running the Chicago half-marathon; a pair of moms and daughters on a girls’ trip to the big city.

“It’s much better than driving,” said Craig Devoto, who lives in Ann Arbor and teaches a class at the University of Illinois-Chicago every Friday. “Taking the train is a no-brainer.”

Indeed, it was an easy, comfortable 4 ½ hour trip in well-appointed new Venture cars, which debuted on the route in 2023.

My trip came about nine months after Ohio was awarded two $500,000 federal grants to study the possibility of expanded Amtrak service throughout Ohio.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission, part of the Ohio Department of Transportation, recently selected HDR Engineering to complete the first of three phases required by the Federal Railroad Administration as part of a new program designed to increase passenger rail service in underserved areas. HDR is charged with outlining the scope and cost of preparing a detailed Service Development Plan, which would determine costs, stops, ridership and other critical steps of any potential new routes.

The ORDC is studying the possibility of adding a new Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati route, as well as new service from Cleveland to Detroit via Toledo.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission in Columbus, meanwhile, is looking at the possibility of adding new service between Chicago and Pittsburgh via Columbus.

Read more: Amtrak expansion in Ohio: What comes next, and how soon might we be taking the train to Columbus?

Michigan, with a statewide population that is less than Ohio’s, had 746,698 Amtrak passengers in 2023; Ohio had just 134,450.

Ann Arbor, a three-hour drive from Cleveland and home to the University of Michigan, had more Amtrak passengers last year – 136,431 – than the entire state of Ohio.

People who wonder whether Ohioans will support increased passenger rail service don’t need to look very far to find a state that has enthusiastically embraced train travel as an alternative to driving.

Michigan is home to three state-supported Amtrak routes: the Wolverine, which travels from Pontiac to Chicago, via Detroit and Ann Arbor, which is what I tried last month; the Blue Water, from Port Huron to Chicago; and the Pere Marquette, from Grand Rapids to Chicago.

Cleveland, meanwhile, is a stop on two of Amtrak’s long-distance routes – the Lake Shore Limited, which travels between New York City and Chicago, with westbound stops in Cleveland at 4 a.m. and eastbound stops at 5:50 a.m.; and the Capitol Limited, which travels between Chicago and Washington, D.C., with westbound stops in Cleveland at 3 a.m. and eastbound stops at 1:50 a.m.

Note: The Capitol Limited will be discontinued next month and combined with Amtrak’s Silver Star service, creating a new route, the Floridian, that travels from Chicago to Miami via Cleveland. The pickup and drop-off times in Cleveland will remain unchanged.

The new routes in Ohio – if they happen — would be state-supported routes, meaning they would likely eventually require state tax dollars to break even, depending on the number of passengers they attract, the fares they command and other factors.

Michigan spent $33 million to subsidize its state-supported routes in 2023, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Michigan has had state-supported Amtrak service for decades. Both the state’s Democratic and Republican governors have supported the service over the years.

In Ohio, conversely, funding for Amtrak became a political hot potato in 2010, when Republican Gov. John Kasich famously returned to the federal government $400 million in funding to initiate new service between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

At the time, Kasich the new route would be both too expensive and too slow.

In an ironic twist, Michigan – then led by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder — received some of Ohio’s rejected federal funding and used it to improve service throughout the state.

Current Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, too, has said that any future passenger rail service in Ohio needs to be competitive with driving.

Early estimates of a potential 3C + D route suggest the service would run with a travel time of about 5 hours and 30 minutes between Cleveland and Cincinnati. That compares to about 4 hours of drive time between the two cities.

The route from Cleveland to Columbus would take an estimated 2 hours, 52 minutes, according to Amtrak.

The trip from Ann Arbor to Chicago, a distance of about 250 miles, takes about 4 hours and 20 minutes on the train, depending on the number of stops. The drive, meanwhile, is about 4 hours, with no traffic (but really, when is there no traffic in Chicago?)

My trip westbound had four stops after Ann Arbor – Jackson, Albion, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo – and was scheduled to take 4 hours and 19 minutes. The return trip had five stops – New Buffalo, Niles, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Jackson – and was scheduled to take 4 hours and 21 minutes.

Both trips were late, partly because we had to wait on a sidetrack while an oncoming Amtrak train passed (this necessity is minimized, I was told, when the trains are running on time).

Indeed, the Wolverine route is consistently late. According to Amtrak data, 69% of Wolverine passengers get to their destination on time, defined as within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival.

Passenger Devoto said the train is routinely about 15 minutes late, but “never more than a half hour.”

The state of Michigan and Amtrak have been working together over the years to improve both speed and reliability on the route.

Indeed, the Wolverine route was among the first routes outside of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to routinely travel at speeds above 100 mph.

As a passenger, it’s hard to tell the difference between 110 and 80 mph – but I do know we were flying through the countryside west of Kalamazoo, speeding past cars on adjacent highways.

“Even at 79 mph, you’re still passing cars,” said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak.

Magliari said speed isn’t the only – or even the most important – variable in favor of train travel.

“What draws business is not always travel time,” he said. “It’s about reliability and frequency and travel time and fares.”

That’s where service in Ohio really falls short and where routes in Michigan succeed.

When I was booking my trip from Ann Arbor to Chicago, I had my choice of three trains – at 7:15 a.m., 10:23 a.m. and 7 p.m. I had three options on my route east, as well, at 6:45 a.m., 2:15 p.m. and 5:50 p.m. (On some days, the service is reduced to twice a day because of work on the tracks.)

Eventually, Amtrak hopes to offer the route six times daily.

The Wolverine route uses Amtrak’s new Venture cars, which debuted in 2023 with comfortable seats, wide aisles and extra-large bathrooms.

The train had outlets at every seat, plenty of legroom, extra-large tray tables, plus free WiFi that was pretty consistent for the length of the trip. So consistent, in fact, that the guy sitting two rows ahead of me was streaming the Browns-Raiders game on the train, which I watched over his shoulder.

The café car offered drinks, snacks and sandwiches, including beer and wine. One gripe: About halfway to Chicago on my westbound trip, the café car closed for restocking and never reopened.

This was not a bargain trip, by the way. I paid $220 round-trip for my ticket, purchased two days before departure. Fares are considerably cheaper if purchased farther in advance, however.

Devoto, the professor, said he buys a 10-pack of one-way tickets for $380, or an inexpensive $38 per trip.

If I lived closer to Ann Arbor, I might consider the bulk purchase.

Alas, I live three hours from Ann Arbor, not exactly a short hop to catch the train.

Still, I can’t imagine an easier way to travel to Chicago, a city with notorious traffic tie-ups and expensive parking. I was more than happy to leave my car behind on this trip.

If you go: Taking the train from Ann Arbor

Note: I don’t expect Clevelanders to drive to Michigan to hop on the train to Chicago. This story was written to show what train travel could be like if Ohio opts to move ahead with expanded Amtrak service in the future.

Ann Arbor’s Amtrak station is on the north side of town, near the Huron River. The station offers free overnight park. Information: Amtrak.com