WEDNESDAY,JULY3,2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 15
LAURIESISK/KANSAN
The Lawrence Amtrak station sits deserted in East Lawrence. The company's financial woes may cause the station to close unless Congress steps in to help the company.
Lawrence train station sees low traffic Amtrak avoids derailment with loan
By Lauren Beatty
Kansan staff writer
The Amtrak station in East Lawrence is dusty, dingy and deserted. An empty parking lot and an unstaffed building would lead most people to assume that this rail station has been abandoned for some time, but it hasn't. Only two trains visit this station, and they arrive at 1:06 and 5:44 a.m. daily when most of the city is still asleep. The early train heads to Chicago, the other train is bound for Los Angeles.
It's not just the Lawrence station that is floundering. The entire Amtrak company is in trouble. Amtrak CEO David Gunn announced in May that if his company didn't receive $200 million in financial help all of Amtrak's commuter train stations would have to shut down.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. Amtrak officials and Congress reached an agreement Wednesday that would allow
Amtrak to immediately borrow $270 million to keep trains running until Sept. 30. At the same time, Congress is considering Amtrak's request for a $1.2 billion government subsidy for the fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Jamie Basham, Overland Park senior, used Amtrak last year to visit her dad in New York City because she was anxious about flying so soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She said she was a little disappointed in the service she received compared with flying.
Despite the 36-hour trip, Basham said she liked seeing the country and thought it was a good alternative to flying. She was not alone in choosing Amtrak.
"It cost $300 and there were no free beverages," Basham said. "It was $2.50 for a small bottle of water."
According to amtrak.com, ridership reached an all-time high in 2001 with more than 23 million people climbing
John Novotny, manager of Travellers Inc., 831 Massachusetts St., said many students from Chicago and St. Louis used Amtrak to get from school to home. He said if Amtrak shut down, it could cause problems for these travellers.
aboard.
"Any time a travel option is not available for some reason, that's not a good thing." Novotny said.
Basham said she hadn't heard about Amtrak's problems and wasn't concerned about being stranded in Kansas.
"I'm going to use it again," she said. "I don't think it will be shut down by August. If it is, I will just fly."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Contact Beatty at lbeaty@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jason Royer.
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