River Road Station

Cincinnati River Road station was an Amtrak intercity rail station located south of River Road (U.S. Route 50) west of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. It opened in October 1972 to replace the underused Cincinnati Union Terminal, and closed in July 1991 when Amtrak moved service back to the restored Union Terminal.

History

Cincinnati Union Terminal, opened in 1933, was among the last grand big-city stations built in the United States. In its heyday, it served up to 216 trains per day. On May 1, 1971, when Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail service, the station's service was reduced to just two routes: the ''James Whitcomb Riley'' to Chicago and the ''George Washington'' to Washington and Newport News. Less than three months later, on July 12, the ''Riley'' and ''George Washington'' merged into a single long-distance Chicago-Washington train, with the eastbound train known as the ''George Washington'' and the westbound train known as the ''James Whitcomb Riley.'' The two trains had been inherited from different railroads — the ''Riley'' from Penn Central (formerly New York Central), the ''George'' from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) — and turning the train to the proper direction required a half-hour trip around a balloon loop north of Union Terminal. These two daily trains, which between them saw fewer than 30 boardings and alightings per day, were nowhere near enough to justify the station's annual $4 million operating cost.

In 1972, construction began on a new, smaller station building. It sat on the south side of the River Road highway viaduct, about southwest of Union Terminal and west of downtown Cincinnati. At 1,500 square feet, it was a tiny fraction of the size of the 504,000-square-foot Union Terminal. The new station had a modern design, a 25-seat air conditioned waiting room, a ticket counter, restrooms, a crew room, and a parking lot for 30 cars. The building itself cost $90,000. The station and its parking lot were designed so that both could be enlarged if traffic increased.

The new Cincinnati River Road station opened on October 29, 1972, having cost a total of $270,000. It was expected to save the company $500,000 in annual operating costs. It was located on the ex-New York Central line between Cincinnati and Indianapolis used by the ''Riley''/''George'', and thus avoided the need for the slow loop turnaround.

However, on October 6, 1973, Amtrak rerouted the ''Riley''/''George'' off of deteriorating ex-NYC track in Indiana and onto ex-Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) trackage between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Because the PRR approached Cincinnati from the east rather than the west, a long and complex backup move was necessary for trains to reach River Road station.

On May 19, 1974, the ''George Washington'' name was dropped, and the ''James Whitcomb Riley'' name was applied in both directions. On August 1, 1974, Amtrak rerouted the ''Riley'' off Penn Central trackage altogether, switching it to C&O trackage between Chicago and Cincinnati. However, the C&O approached Cincinnati from the north and a backup move was still required.

The Chicago-Norfolk ''Mountaineer'' began service through Cincinnati on March 24, 1975, followed by the Cincinnati-Washington, D.C. '' Shenandoah'' on October 31, 1976. On October 30, 1977, the ''Riley'' was renamed the ''Cardinal''. Yet another reroute of the ''Cardinal'' — this one between Cincinnati and Cottage Grove, Indiana, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, on July 17, 1978 — still required a backup move to serve River Road station.

The ''Mountaineer'' was discontinued on June 1, 1977. The ''Shenandoah'' and ''Cardinal'' were both discontinued on September 30, 1981, amid budget cuts, briefly ending rail service to Cincinnati. However, the ''Cardinal'' was restored on January 8, 1982. In 1990, Union Terminal was remodeled and renamed the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. The remodel enabled Amtrak to return to Union Terminal on July 29, 1991, at last eliminating the backup moves required for River Road service. The River Road station was demolished in 2010 when the adjacent Waldvogel Viaduct was realigned.

References

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External links

{{Amtrak Ohio stations

Railway stations in the United States opened in 1972
Railway stations closed in 1991
Former railway stations in Ohio
Transportation buildings and structures in Cincinnati
Former Amtrak stations in Ohio
Demolished railway stations in the United States