Prior service Prior to the formation of
Amtrak, the Chicago–Indianapolis market was served by several daily trains, the
Pennsylvania Railroad's
South Wind and
Kentuckian, and the
New York Central's James Whitcomb Riley,
Indianapolis Special, and
Sycamore. There is a name antecedent to the train. The
Monon Railroad ran the
Hoosier daily between Chicago and Indianapolis. With the creation of Amtrak, riders were served by the
South Wind and the
George Washington/James Whitcomb Riley. However, with
Penn Central's financial instability, track maintenance in the Midwest suffered. Amtrak shifted both trains to other routes through
Indiana, leaving Indianapolis to be served only by the
National Limited (formerly the
Spirit of St. Louis), which ran between New York and Kansas City. The ''National Limited's'' discontinuance in 1979 severed Indianapolis from the national rail network, and isolated Amtrak's
Beech Grove Shops in the Indianapolis suburb of
Beech Grove. The passenger carrier had been using the
National Limited to ferry railroad cars to and from its shops; it was forced to run special trains to Indianapolis instead. On April 27, 1986, the
Cardinal (formerly the
James Whitcomb Riley) was rerouted to use the same tracks as the
Hoosier State between Chicago and Indianapolis, and the
Hoosier State began running on days the
Cardinal did not operate. The
Hoosier State was restored to daily operation on a separate schedule from the
Cardinal on October 25, 1987. However, funding cuts led to its discontinuance on September 8, 1995, while the
Cardinal continued tri-weekly operation between Chicago, Indianapolis, and the East Coast. Amtrak restored the
Hoosier State on July 19, 1998, as a tri-weekly, later quad-weekly train. Northbound trains departed Indianapolis on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, while southbound trains departed Chicago on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons.
Kentucky Cardinal On December 17, 1999, the
Hoosier State was extended south from Indianapolis to
Louisville, Kentucky, and renamed the
Kentucky Cardinal. It was also expanded to a full-fledged daily train. On the three days the
Cardinal operated, the
Kentucky Cardinal operated as a section, splitting in Indianapolis. For the rest of the week, it ran independently to Chicago. However, the
Kentucky Cardinal was plagued by extremely slow speeds along its Indianapolis-to-Louisville leg—as slow as in some places—making it slower than automobile traffic along the same stretch of
Interstate 65. Amtrak discontinued the
Kentucky Cardinal on July 4, 2003, and brought back the
Hoosier State on its pre-1999 schedule, operating four days a week in tandem with the
Cardinal.
State funding On October 16, 2008, the
Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) was signed into law, requiring states to bear the operating and capital costs of intercity rail passenger service on Amtrak routes of not more than within 5 years. At a length of , the
Hoosier State was affected by this provision of PRIIA, and the State of Indiana became responsible for funding the
Hoosier State beginning on October 1, 2013. Faced with termination of a service that would have left the Chicago–Indianapolis corridor with only thrice-weekly train service, state and local officials arrived at a deal to share the $3 million annual cost of the service, becoming the last state in the nation to arrive at a deal to save its short-distance train line on October 15, 2013. Operating costs above ticket revenue continue to be covered by the
Indiana Department of Transportation and communities along the route. Indiana sought alternatives to Amtrak operation and, on June 24, 2014, selected Corridor Capital, a Chicago-based rail passenger services development company, as its preferred vendor to manage and operate the service. Planning was underway for the company to take over the service as early as October 1, 2014. However, Corridor Capital did not meet that deadline and
Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) discontinued negotiations with the company in November 2014. Amtrak continued to operate the train service under short-term contract extensions while the state considered alternative vendors. On March 6, 2015, INDOT announced that the
Hoosier State would discontinue service on April 1, 2015. The decision was made due to regulations of the
Federal Railroad Administration that would have required the state of Indiana to act as a rail carrier, despite the state owning no tracks or trains, which—according to INDOT—would have increased the cost to Indiana taxpayers for no additional benefit. After Indiana appealed to the FRA, the train's operation was extended to April 30, while Amtrak continued to operate the
Hoosier State under a short-term agreement while negotiations continued.
Iowa Pacific operation On August 2, 2015, INDOT contracted with
Iowa Pacific and Amtrak in order to continue the
Hoosier State, with Iowa Pacific responsible for providing and maintaining equipment, food service, and marketing, and Amtrak responsible for providing ticketing services and train operating crews (engineers, assistant engineers, conductors, and assistant conductors). The contract had four option years. Once the service improvements instituted by Iowa Pacific took hold, including the addition of full-service
dining, onboard Wi-Fi,
business-class service, and a
dome car, ridership began increasing and was up 5.8% in July 2016 over the previous July, with FY 2016 (October 2015–July 2016) revenues up 32.8% from the prior year. On January 30, 2017, INDOT announced that Iowa Pacific was no longer able to fulfill the contract and had asked to be released from the contract early, prior to its original end date of June 30, 2017. As a result, the equipment and personnel provided by Iowa Pacific were withdrawn and replaced by Amtrak equipment and on-board services personnel in advance of March 1 run of the westbound train from Indianapolis.
Service cancellation and replacement In February 2019, Indiana governor
Eric Holcomb proposed a budget that did not include funding for the
Hoosier State, saying that the train did not have enough ridership to justify a subsidy. Environmentalists were disappointed by the decision, contending that the loss of the train service would increase the use of passenger cars by citing a 2016 Amtrak survey that found 57 percent of passengers in Indiana would drive to their destination if the service was canceled. On April 8, 2019, Amtrak announced that unless state funding was restored, the
Hoosier State would end on June 30, 2019. Passengers who had already purchased
Hoosier State tickets for travel after that date would be compensated with
Cardinal tickets. The budget passed on April 24 without
Hoosier State funding. On June 30, the
Hoosier State officially made its final run. In May 2019, a private transportation company,
OurBus, announced plans to start a two-month pilot of daily round trip bus service between Indianapolis and Chicago to fill the gap left by the
Hoosier State. OurBus charged a $10 introductory rate before raising fares to between $25 and $35. The OurBus route included stops in
Zionsville and Lafayette in Indiana. Other stops along the route would be added if at least 100 people make the request. Gold Shield Transportation is contracted to provide the bus service. In 2021, Amtrak developed a plan to bring service between Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville/Cincinnati which if implemented, could include up to eight daily round trips from Chicago to Louisville/Cincinnati, all of which would almost certainly go through Indianapolis and almost certainly travel along the former Hoosier State route. This new proposal was supported by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill, but full implementation would take several years. In 2025, state officials indicated plans to resume Chicago–Indianapolis service with two daily round trips independent from the
Cardinal. A proposed service operator and equipment had not been determined by that time. ==Route details==