Michael D. Clark

mclark@enquirer.com

Amtrak’s Cardinal Line could add stop in Oxford allowing thousands of Miami University students to travel to Chicago and East Coast.

Oxford and Miami University officials will submit proposal to Amtrak next month.

The Butler County college town has not had a passenger train stop since the 1950s.

OXFORD – The past may be rolling back here on a rail for thousands of college students as officials here push for a passenger train connection to Chicago.

It’s been more than a half-century since this Butler County college town has had a working train station allowing Miami University students and others to come and go by rail.

Early next month Oxford and Miami officials plan to send a joint letter to Amtrak officials asking for scheduled stops of its popular Cardinal train line to Chicago.

The passenger train, which runs from New York City to Washington, D.C., and then to Cincinnati and on to Chicago, passes through but does not stop in Oxford.

“We have a lot of Miami University students who come from and through Chicago,” Oxford City Manager Douglas Elliott said Friday.

Passenger rail service in Oxford ended in the 1950s. Oxford’s long-abandoned train station was torn down in 1994.

The same request was rejected by Amtrak in 2009, but city and university officials – along with regional rail advocates – said recent communications with the rail provider show them now to be more interested in accommodating millennial-aged passengers, of which Miami has about 16,000.

“The conditions have changed with Amtrak and this time we’re more optimistic,” said Elliott.

A rail stop now makes sense argued officials.

Car ownership can be problematic for Miami students whom comprise the largest portion of Oxford’s 22,000 population, of which 44 percent are between the ages of 20 and 24. There are university restrictions on vehicles and parking around campus is often scarce and costly.

Moreover, studies have shown that fewer millennials own or have access to cars compared to previous generations of young adults.

And a growing percentage of Miami’s students are from out-of-state and from other nations, while the school has also attracted many students from the Chicago area, said Miami officials.

“The greater Chicagoland area is home to the largest out-of-state concentration of alumni, and provides us with large numbers of students each year,” said Ray Mock, executive director of the Miami University Alumni Association.

School officials also cite a growing Asian student population, many of whom enter America by flying into Chicago.

“I think an Amtrak route between Oxford and Chicago would be a welcome asset,” said Mock.

A new station, whose location is undetermined, would be more like a bus shelter, said Derek Bauman, southwest regional director for All Aboard Ohio, a pro-rail group that also backed downtown Cincinnati’s recent street car development.

And an Oxford stop would give Southwest Ohio another, non-Cincinnati option for traveling by train to Chicago, said Bauman.

There is demand for travel to Chicago from Greater Cincinnati, Bauman said. Chicago ranked No. 2 in most popular destinations from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport between July 2013 and June 2014, according to federal transportation data.

Amtrak’s Cardinal service between Cincinnati and Chicago currently is limited and inconvenient. Amtrak offers service from Cincinnati’s Union Terminal only on Monday, Thursday and Saturday – departing at 1:23 a.m. and arriving in Chicago nearly 10 hours later. The return trip from Chicago arrives in Cincinnati on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 3:27 a.m.

The Cardinal passenger train stops could be three times a week and would only consist of a five-minute boarding and departing period, said Bauman, who is working with Oxford and Miami officials in their efforts.

Bauman said the often rural, two-lane roads connecting Oxford to the region have the city and its campus landlocked and overly dependent on cars.

“College campuses,” he said, “are a huge market for rail.”

Jason Williams contributed.