Oxford Continues Push to Be an Amtrak Stop

Oxford, Ohio, officials continue to push for their city of 21,000 to become a station for Amtrak’s tri-weekly Chicago-New York Cardinal.

City Manager Douglas Elliott told the Oxford City Council this month that he met with Miami University officials, the Butler County Regional Transit Authority, and the Talawanda schools to discuss applying for a TIGER grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation that would be used to build station facilities.

The university favors creating an Amtrak stop in Oxford.

“As a university that attracts students from Ohio as well as throughout the U.S. and around the world, we support an initiative that would provide expanded travel options for Miami students. Miami has a strong presence in the Midwest – the 10 top non-Ohio high schools with the largest number of applicants for fall 2014 were from the Chicago area – so having this option available for prospective and current students would be a helpful asset to the University,” said Susan Schaurer, interim director of admission and enrollment communication.

Elliott also noted that a new round of TIGER funding is slated for early spring.

“We think the time is good for us to request once again to request they consider a feasibility study for a stop here in Oxford,” he said. “We’ll be submitting a letter to Amtrak regarding that.” Amtrak rejected an earlier request from Oxford to conduct a feasibility study.

Elliott said that request was made around the time the recession hit. Ridership aboard the Cardinal has since improved.

Tags: Amtrak, Amtrak stations, Amtrak's Cardinal, Miami University, Oxford Ohio