Summary of passengers' evidence--Continued

VI EVIDENCE OF PASSENGERS WHICH UTILIZE CONRAIL'S VALPARAISO, IN STATION--Continued

Witness is driven to
Conrail's Valparaiso
station. She walks
1.5 blocks from Union
Station to her place
of employment. Fre-
quently the trains
are not on time.

Witness indicated that
she has no other sat-
isfactory means of
getting to Chicago.
She would have to go
to Tremont, IN, to
get the SS and then
she would have to
cross the Loop by
bus or taxi.

Probably would take SS

Yes, would pay
up to 50 per-
cent more a
month without
question. But
he would not
want to cover
any alleged
deficit with-
out proof.
Yes-----

p.m.

See footnotes at end of tables.

Summary of passengers' evidence--Continued

VI EVIDENCE OF PASSENGERS WHICH UTILIZE CONRAIL'S VALPARAISO, IN STATION--Continued

Conrail service

Witness drives 39 miles
to Conrail's Valparaiso
station. He works above
Union Station. Conrail's
on time performance has
been bad for the last 2.5
years. It was his under-
standing that in the last
4 or 5 months it has been
a lot better.
Witness works at 111 W.
Monroe Street. He be-
lieves that Conrail de-
liberately downgraded
the service. Allegedly,
the Penn Central main-
tained the cars properly.
But when Conrail took
over there was a lack of
maintenance. Then Con-
rail began to threaten
discontinuance. Rider-
ship dropped off. Wit-
ness believes that a
stop at State Line, IL,
has the potential of
perhaps becoming the
largest stop along this
line. This witness has
spoken with five Indi-
ana State legislators
regarding the proposed
discontinuance and the
possibility of the State
of Indiana financially
assisting.

See footnotes at end of tables.

Summary of passengers' evidenos--Continued

VI EVIDENCE OF PASSENGERS WHICH UTILIZE CONRAIL'S VALPARAISO, IN STATION--Continued

Witness writes. He in-
dicates that he can-
not read or write on
the SS or while driv-
ing a car.

rail's Valparaiso sta-
tion. He walks or rides
the bus from Union Sta-
tion to his place of em-
ployment which is very
close to SS's Randolph
station. Conrail's on-
time performance has al-
legedly contributed to
the loss of riders. This
witness rides the first
train in the morning and
evening so that if there
is a breakdown he will
be picked up by the sec-
ond train. Trains are of-
ten delayed 10-15 minutes
in the morning outside
Union Station without
cause. Also at least once
a week trains have to
wait 20 minutes at the
Grand Trunk crossing just
outside Valparaiso. Alleg-
edly, this wait is some-
times unnecessary but Con-
rail has not taken appro-
priate action to correct
the situation. This wit-
ness concludes that either
Conrail wants to discourage
ridership or it has a se-
vere management problem.

See footnotes at end of tables.

Summary of passengers' evidence--Continued

VI EVIDENCE OF PASSENGERS WHICH UTILIZE CONRAIL'S VALPARAISO, IN STATION--Continued

rail's Valparaiso sta-
tion. He walks or rides
a bus from Union Station
to his place of employ-
ment at 200 E. Randolph.
The witness pointed out
that this rail service
has provided the young
people of his community
an opportunity to find
a good job in Chicago.

Witness drives to Con-
rail's Valparaiso sta-
tion. He walks from
Union Station to his
place of employment.

Alternatives

Driving is assertedly
not a safe alterna-
tive. Also the witness
pointed out that if
he uses his car for
business purposes,
the Internal Revenue
Service would allow
him 17 cents a mile,
which he argues is
the true cost of op-
erating an automobile.
On this basis, adding
parking costs and
tolls, he points out
it would cost him
about $500 a month to
drive to and from
Chicago.

SS's Tremont station is
about 14 or 15 miles
from his residence.
Witness is blind in
one eye as the result
of an automobile ac-
cident, which in-
volved a truck, on
the way to work one
morning. He does not
want to commute by

car.

See footnotes at end of tables.

Summary of passengers' evidence--Continued

VI EVIDENCE OF PASSENGERS WHICH UTILIZE CONRAIL'S VALPARAISO, IN STATION--Continued Usage2

Witness believes that
there is a lack of en-
thusiasm to keep this
line operating on the
part of those who are
operating it.
Witness walks to station
in Valparaiso. And he
walks to his destina-
tion from Union Station.
This witness pointed
out that the Grand
Trunk is on a 1.8-
percent grade just
west of Valparaiso
and it gets priority
at the crossing be-
cause if it had to
stop going uphill it
might not be able to
start again and coming
downhill they apparent-
ly do not want to place
an unnecessary strain
on the brakes.
Witness drives 7 miles
to Conrail's Valparaiso
station. Regarding serv-
ice, he indicated that
"a couple of years back"
the train ran out of
fuel at Hobart more than
once. The witness also
stated that the mechan-
ics who work on this
equipment "ought to all
get medals for what
they had to work with."

6 a.m.

5:05 p.m.

See footnotes at end of tables.