It's a shame to read this about IND station. The Cardinal is likely to go daily, but I suppose on the same schedule. The 3C+D at least has local support, in northeast Ohio. As the big city, with contrasting politics to the state, maybe there is significant local support. Or, as the big city, maybe it's seen as wasteful by the rest of the state, a pretty common thing. It is the state capital though.
The Indiana Passenger Rail Alliance, updated in 2022, has three action items:
- Requesting funding in the form of federal grants to develop future passenger rail concepts
- Demanding Improvements to Indianapolis Union Station
- Establishing the Hard Tech Corridor to connect Purdue University's campuses
Purdue is on the Cardinal, West Lafayette, but also the Indianapolis and Hammond campuses.
On a map you can see the IND station is between high-end downtown hotels and the convention center next to the indoor NFL stadium. I had a memorable few days there with 30,000 firefighters at a convention. The big equipment was parked in the stadium. My partner and I convened the evening before, at a Starbucks on the circle at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, in the hotel zone, but the monument itself was perhaps not considered ultra safe at night. We struck up a conversation with a family with a singer at the opera next door. Later we went to a canal walk and other places in rolling suburbs (every driveway with a basketball hoop), places that used to be towns. Hurricane Katrina had sent Louisiana chefs far and wide, including a po-boy counter out there. Also went to soul food place east of downtown.
It's not a top ten convention center in size, but it's plenty big.
USA Today: "Although Indiana Convention Center isn't near as many attractions or entertainment options as other cities can boast, it gets top marks for being near hotels and restaurants. And if you're a football fan, it's pretty thrilling to be across the street from Andrew Luck and the Colts come fall."