Ohio Amtrak station statistics (FY2014)
(Ranking), City, Boardings + Alightings
(7th) Alliance 4,691
(6th) Bryan 6,597
(3rd) Cincinnati 13,681
(2nd) Cleveland 49,327
(5th) Elyria 6,721
(4th) Sandusky 9,840
(1st) Toledo 63,272
Total Ohio Station Usage: 154,129 (down 4.9% from FY2013)
This is Amtrak's station data for FY2014. Ridership is down at all Ohio stations a bit due in large part to the pitiful timekeeping of the Capitol and Lake Shore Limited through much of summer '14. You can see that far and away, Toledo and Cleveland make up over 2/3rds of the total Ohio traffic. Cincinnati's ridership would be higher, but the Cardinal also stops in the very wee hours and only runs three days a week.
A fairly large share of the Toledo traffic is Michigan-based, as it is the best station to head east from for all of SE and much of Central Michigan. Amtrak operates a dedicated Thruway connecting motorcoach which serves the Detroit, Dearborn, Ann Arbor, Jackson and E. Lansing Amtrak Stations and connect with the Capitol and Lake Shore. Most times I've ridden this Thruway service, the bus has been full or nearly full. These are 48 or 50 passenger motorcoaches. If you very conservatively estimate 30 passengers per trip, to and from Toledo, 365 days per year, that would be nearly 11,000 passengers right there. I'd guess the true Thruway ridership to be much higher. And of course this wouldn't count any passengers from Michigan who make their own arrangements to get to Toledo. I rode the Thruway bus very recently - it was a nearly brand new bus with wifi, 120v connections and comfy seats....not bad!
I'd be the last person to defend Amtrak, but Toledo is the most heavily used station in Ohio - even with the crappy scheduling. If they ever got over their "endpoint mentality" and had a daylight train, those numbers would only grow.
It's not so much of an endpoint mentality as it is a connectivity mentality....sure, a train leaving Chicago eastbound at 9am would go thru Toledo at Lunchtime and overnight across PA or NY in time for a middle of the night arrival on the east coast, but any passengers transferring to that train in Chicago from any other Amtrak service - local or long distance, would have to spend a day/night in Chicago first. Both inside and outside the NEC, a significant number of Amtrak passengers transfer one or more times between Amtrak routes. The EB Capitol and Lake Shore leave Chicago when they do and go thru Toledo when they do because many passengers are boarding those trains in Chicago from other Amtrak arrivals earlier in the day. In the old days, NYC could justify other trains besides its star performers to carry this middle-of-route traffic at a more convenient time, but if you look at a 20th Century Limited Schedule, those arrival times weren't always convenient in Toledo, either.
For the record, I've left my car at the Toledo station for a week at a time on a couple occasions, and never had a problem. The constant movement of NS and NS Police personnel in the area really helps keep an eye on things. I've found the Toledo Amtrak agents to be friendly and helpful, and yes, sometimes not knowledgeable about the latest train arrival times, but they do have a stop on one of the busiest mainlines on the country - things do happen and they aren't always the first informed. The Toledo station is a cool architectural structure from the outside and the renovated Amtrak waiting room on the lower level isn't a bad place to wait for a train. When I recently arrived on the Capitol Limited from Washington DC, we were 12 minutes early. The train departed for Chicago on time. The Lake Shore arriving after us was about 35 minutes late, but had been about that late since Buffalo. I'm glad to see timekeeping is improving as of late!
You can do this.. On the Capitol limited you would depart at 5:22am, and arrive at 8:45 am into chicago, or depart on the lake shore limited at 6:15am and arrive at 9:45qm. You could then take either home leaving Chicago in the evening at 6:40pm on the Capitol and arrive at 11:39pm the same day, or get on the lake shore at 9:30pm and arrive at Toledo at 2:50am the next morning. I don't know what schedule you looked at but there's no WB trains out of Toledo at 7:25pm unless you have an epically late train (which has happened before lol)
