Railroad: Amtrak - the National Railroad Passenger Corporation

Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is a U.S. government agency which was formed in 1976 during the failure of the Penn Central corporation and other railroads that operated failing passenger trains around the country. In Michigan, Amtrak owns the former Michigan Central line from Kalamazoo to Porter, Indiana via Niles and New Buffalo. More recently, Amtrak now operates the same line between Town Line (Dearborn) and Kalamazoo which is owned by the State of Michigan.

Penn Central → Amtrak → in operation

Became: Purchased the line from Kalamazoo to Porter, Indiana from Penn Central in 1976.

Reference: [MRRC]

Notes

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, known as Amtrak, was created out of the bankruptcy of the Penn Central and other railroads in the 1970's. The purpose of Amtrak was to take over most intercity passenger railroad operations from struggling common carrier railroad companies. Amtrak began operations in 1971. In 1976, Amtrak purchased from Penn Central their former main line from Kalamazoo to Porter, Indiana which they had been using with little freight operation present. Amtrak continues to own this line as of 2016 and parts of it have been brought up to 125 mph operation.

Time Line

1974: September. The Blue Water Limited makes its inaugural run through Battle Creek. [BCE-1974-0919]

1975. April. The Amtrak Turboliner begins Chicago-Detroit service. BCE-1975-0408]

1976: July. Amtrak begins use of new "Amfleet" cars on their Detroit-Chicago run on May 18, 1976. They also begin use of EMD F40PH units in the same corridor. [RNE-1976-07]

1979. March. Amtrak announces they will discontinue their Niagara Rainbow train from Detroit to Canada. [RNE-19779-03:11]

1983. December. Amtrak announces they will halt Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter trains. [AAN-1983-1220:1]

1989. April. The Michigan Court of Appeals upholds responsibility of Amtrak and Conrail to protect three workers murdered at the Jackson depot in 1978. The judgement was $8.9 million. [SBR/DN-1989-0420]

2011. April. Amtrak has sued the City of Detroit over a March crash that happened after firefighters parked a fire engine on the railroad tracks. The train was travelling west when it crossed Lonyo Avenue. The engineer saw the fire engine parked on the tracks and applied the emergency brakes but was unable to avoid crashing into the vehicle. "I'm very upset," executive fire commissioner James Mack said at the time. "I'm going to make it known that this is not acceptable and we'll do some training." MRF-2011-04]

2014: The State of Michigan purchased the remainder of the line between Kalamazoo and Detroit from the Norfolk Southern railroad, the successor owner of a series of railroads beginning with the State's central line, the Michigan Central, the New York Central, Penn Central and Conrail.