The 4:05 p.m. departure time of the Carbondale-to-Chicago Amtrak train has been saved for now because of the effort of Carbondale and University officials.

The announcement was made at a press conference Friday.

It has been two years since the city of Carbondale and SIUC began working with Amtrak to save the 4:05 p.m. departure time on the Illini route from Carbondale to Chicago, as well as the south-bound route from Chicago to Carbondale.

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Amtrak considered altering the time to a morning route, and though no definite time was set, a 6 a.m. departure was discussed. The change was to go into effect July 1.

A group of students then met with Amtrak and Illinois Department of Transportation officials in April to ask them to save the Illini departure time, citing that a change would be a hardship to college students.

The efforts resulted in a victory for students, Dave Vingren, president of the Undergraduate Student Government, said. The 4 p.m. leave time was extremely important for students’ lives.

Vingren said that if the train’s departure time was changed to the morning, many students would have to miss class on Friday to make it home.

Of the passengers who ride the Illini route, 41 percent are students and 49 percent are under the age of 25, Mark Magliari, manager of media relations for Amtrak, said. The numbers came from a study conducted by Western Illinois University under contract of IDOT.

Mark Terry, former president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, devised an alternative for the route. Terry suggested Amtrak change the departure time to 6 a.m. on weekdays and continue a 4:05 p.m. departure on Friday.

(The alternative) was strongly considered by Amtrak, Jeff Doherty, Carbondale city manager, said. Amtrak informed us the schedule would be maintained with the understanding that it would be revisited in the future.

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No date for the revisitation has been set, and Magliari would not say what it would take to keep the afternoon departure.

Doherty said the persistence of the SIUC administration, SIUC student leaders, the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce and City officials saved the Illini route.

When college students sit down face-to-face, it takes on an added significance, he said. It has really been a truly coordinated effort. We have worked together and done what was necessary to keep the Illini route.

Doherty said Amtrak will increase marketing of the route to college students in an attempt to increase ridership.

Amtrak will monitor the success of marketing promotion, Magliari said, such as buy-one, get-one free ticket offers and route-specific advertising.

Mayor Neil Dillard stressed the importance of marketing Amtrak.

We must talk about it every day, he said. We must market the service. We are going to have to sell Amtrak word-of-mouth. We need to talk to people in Southern Illinois.

Magliari stressed that Amtrak will be in service for a while longer, even though state funding was cut.

The state of Illinois and Amtrak have a three-year contract, he said. There is no hint of any other decision. There is no worry there won’t be service. People can now count on it, and it will help build our ridership.

In January 1997, Illinois decided to fund Amtrak $7 million in 1997, $7.55 million in 1998 and $7.95 million in 1999.