Train To End Janesville Service By Fall

JANESVILLE, Wis., 3:18 p.m. CST March 17, 2001 -- Amtrak will drop its Chicago-to-Janesville service Sept. 21, the company says.

Starting March 24, service will be scaled back from daily round trips to just Saturdays. Federal law requires Amtrak to give six months' notice before ending service.

The Lake Country Limited, as the route is known, has carried passengers and express freight between Chicago and Janesville since April. In June, the train added a stop at Zenda, near Lake Geneva.

But service did not pick up to the level Amtrak officials had hoped.

The line began with an average of five or six passengers per train. Passenger numbers increased to nearly a dozen in the summer but dropped back to five or six during the fall and winter, Amtrak figures showed.

Doug Venable, Janesville economic director, said few residents will miss the route, which he called "a good experiment."

Express freight was expected to pay for the route, but Amtrak said shipping opportunities for food and consumer goods didn' t materialize.

Kevin Johnson, an Amtrak spokesman in Chicago, declined to release revenue figures for the service.

U.S. News & World Report says it obtained an internal Amtrak report that showed the Lake Country Limited lost $438 per passenger. Johnson said he couldn' t confirm that figure.

Johnson said the line closure won' t affect other routes, including Amtrak' s planned extension of its Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha line to Fond du Lac. That expansion has been delayed until Canadian National Railroad completes its purchase of Wisconsin Central Ltd., which owns the tracks.

The Fond du Lac route would run one daily round trip and also would carry express freight to generate revenue.