By Jason Freund 13

Travelers in the habit of purchasing Amtrak tickets in Carbondale without reservations soon will have to purchase those tickets in advance.

An announcement made by Amtrak officials Tuesday stated the Illini Route will become all-reserved seating beginning Oct. 26.

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Marc Magliari, Amtrak media relations director, said Amtrak has been considering the change for several months, as part of semi-annual schedule changes.

This will serve to eliminate the standee conditions that exist on these trains, he said. It will ensure the trains are sized properly to ensure they aren’t running short or [have] surplus cars.

Magliari said the change will allow for better prediction of ridership.

This is a real-time way to predict ridership, he said.

Carbondale City Manager Jeff Doherty said he thinks the change is a good idea.

It will allow them to operate better and hopefully if they see there is a large number of reservations, they can add a car to accommodate, he said.

Doherty said the unreserved seats can deter riders.

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It (unreserved seating) leads to standing-room only, with people standing in the aisles, which turns people off, he said. There are certain times when people avoid Amtrak, such as northbound on Friday afternoon and southbound on Sunday afternoon, because you can’t be ensured a seat.

This will ensure people a seat and allow Amtrak to serve people better. I think it will help their overall performance.

Amtrak also had been considering changing the leave time of the route. On Oct. 6, Amtrak announced the 4:05 p.m. departure time would be retained on the Illini Route, which runs from Carbondale to Chicago. The departure time will be examined at a later date.

Six routes, servicing Chicago, St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy, along with many stops along those routes, will be affected by the change in the reservation policy.

Magliari said people still will be able to purchase tickets on the train if there is space available.

Steve Dunker, Undergraduate Student Government city affairs commissioner, said the change will benefit people throughout the route, not just in Carbondale.

It will be very beneficial because it will guarantee enough room for everyone, he said. Sometimes when they get full, they have to blow by stops further up the line and leave people standing there on the platform pissed off.

Dunker said the change will allow Amtrak to become more efficient and find peak ridership periods.

Basically, they will find out what they’ve got to work with and learn to work with that, because if they don’t get any capital funding, they will have to become self-supporting, he said. Hopefully, through this they will learn to be self-supportive and make them be more efficient.