CHICAGO — Amtrak has announced it will no longer sell tickets for the Hoosier State after June 30 as the train nears cancellation as a result of loss of funding from the state of Indiana.
The state currently provides $3 million in funding for the four-day-a-week train, while five local governments provide another $500,000. But the train was not included in the budget proposals of Gov. Eric Holcomb or Indiana House Republicans, which would end funding on July 1. [See “Proposed Indiana budget threatens future of ‘Hoosier State,’” Trains News Wire, Jan. 14, 2019.]
“This service only exists because of the state contract,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the Indiana Business Journal. “We can’t in good conscience continue to sell tickets without a contract in place.”
Magliari said about 500 people who have already bought tickets on the train after June 30 will be accommodated on the Chicago-New York Cardinal, which serves the Indianapolis-Chicago route three days a week.
