Dowagiac Amtrak riders may have missed the train Monday morning and evening after new arrival and departure times for east- and westbound routes were put into effect.

In an effort to improve travel times, Amtrak shifted eastbound and westbound arrival and departure times by only a few minutes, but enough to prevent some riders from catching the train.

During the regular meeting of the city council Monday evening, the Dowagiac depot’s volunteer greeter, Ron Leetz, said some riders missed trains Monday because of the change.

The change in times, according to Amtrak Chicago’s media manager Marc Magliari, had to be negotiated between other stations east and west of Dowagiac’s depot,  200 Depot Drive, directly behind city hall.

“There were some schedule changes, but they’re fairly slight,” Magliari said. “We wanted to take into account quicker travel times for all passengers traveling east or west.”

The changes went into effect Monday morning.

Eastbound trains that stop in Dowagiac often left at 10:25 a.m.

The schedule shift pushed eastbound departure times to 10:17 a.m. For eastbound departures in the evening from Dowagiac, trains left at 7:03 p.m. The time shift now has evening trains leaving at 6:43 p.m.

Magliari said westbound trains were also affected, but one travel time was moved to a later time instead of earlier.

“We’ve got three times that were moved forward and one that was pushed back, but again, the changes aren’t much different from what they were,” Magliari said.

Westbound morning departures out of the depot were pushed up from 10:54 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. Westbound evening departures were pushed to a later time, from 9:47 p.m. to 9:51 p.m.

For more information on Amtrak schedules or Dowagiac’s arrival and departure times, visit www.
amtrak.com.