South Bend receives federal grant to bring Amtrak downtown

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- According to the Federal Railroad Administration, the city of South Bend will receive up to $3.848 million in federal grant money to bring back Amtrak to downtown's union station.

Mayor James Mueller states, "This has been a priority for our community for a long time. I believe it’s in our 2045 comprehensive plan to bring a train service back to downtown South. We have a long history of train service in downtown South Bend.”

The city plans to host a formal press conference in the near future for the relocation.

"The nice thing about the location downtown is it’s close to the transport depot just two lots to the east and so folks from around town could take the bus to get to the Amtrak train because there weren’t a lot of people walking to the train station”

This relocation project qualifies for the statutory set-aside for long-distance passenger rail routes and services: Amtrak's Floridan and Lake Shore Limited routes.

The mayor reiterated this is a planning grant, and it will be a number of years before the operational details will be worked out.