LAFAYETTE - Joe Krause is an Amtrak passenger assistant based in Lafayette.
He rises before the sun and takes a bus to downtown that deposits him near the train station before 7 a.m. He then spends the better part of an hour greeting Amtrak customers and making sure they park in the correct spot, get on the train and are informed of any delays.
“If the train is late sometimes I recommend they go to Java Roaster,” Krause said. “I just tell them what time to be back or I go get them myself.”
Krause and his partner, Julius Walker, aren’t paid for their service; they are volunteers. And they do this seven mornings a week.
Lately there has been a lot of need for the service Krause and Walker provide. On-time performance for Amtrak’s Hoosier State and Cardinal rail lines, both of which make stops in Lafayette, has been low.
In August the Hoosier State arrived on time 37.1 percent of the time, according to Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari. The line’s on-time performance in September was up to 56 percent, and the Cardinal line was operating at 58 percent on-time performance for the same month.
Krause said he definitely has seen a lot of frustration from customers regarding train delays. In some cases, he said, the train is so far behind he’ll recommend a person drive or find alternative means of transit.
“There was this group of people from Rossville that was going to Chicago to take the architecture boat tour. The train was so late I told them there’s no way they’d make it. I told them either forget about it or drive. … I think they drove,” Krause said.
According to data collected and released by Amtrak the CSX Corp., the company that owns the railroad tracks between Indianapolis and Dyer, is the culprit in a majority of these delays.