, opened in 1933, was among the newest big-city stations in the United States. Once serving 216 trains per day, it was reduced to just two routes–the James Whitcomb Riley to Chicago and the George Washington to Washington and Newport News–when Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail service on May 1, 1971. The underused station cost Amtrak $4 million per year to run. Additionally, on July 12, 1971, the Riley and George Washington merged into a single long-distance Chicago-Washington train, with the eastbound train known as the George Washington and the westbound train known as the James Whitcomb Riley. However, the two trains had been inherited from different railroads–the Riley from Penn Central, the George from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. This forced a half-hour delay to use a balloon loop north of Union Terminal to face the train in the correct direction. The two total trains, which between them saw fewer than 30 boardings and alightings per day, were nowhere near enough to justify such a large station. On October 29, 1972, Amtrak opened a new, smaller station on the south side of the River Road highway viaduct, about southwest of Union Terminal and west of downtown Cincinnati. The first station custom-built for Amtrak, it cost $270,000 but was expected to save the company $500,000 in operating costs. It was located on the ex-New York Central line between Cincinnati and Indianapolis used by the Riley/George, and thus avoided the need for the slow loop turnaround. However, on October 6, 1973, Amtrak rerouted the Riley/George off deteriorating ex-NYC track in Indiana, moving it instead to ex-Pennsylvania Railroad trackage between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Because the PRR approached Cincinnati from the east rather than the west, a long and complex backup move was necessary for trains to reach River Road station. On May 19, 1974, the George Washington name was dropped, and the James Whitcomb Riley name was applied in both directions. On August 1, 1974, Amtrak rerouted the Riley off Penn Central trackage altogether, switching it to C&O trackage between Chicago and Cincinnati. However, the C&O approached Cincinnati from the north and a backup move was still required. The Chicago-Norfolk Mountaineer began service via Cincinnati on March 24, 1975, followed by the Cincinnati-Washington, D.C. Shenandoah on October 31, 1976. On October 30, 1977, the Riley was renamed as the Cardinal. Yet another reroute of the Cardinal - this one between Cincinnati and Cottage Grove, Indiana on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on July 17, 1978 - still required a backup move to serve River Road station. The Mountaineer was discontinued on June 1, 1977. The Shenandoah and Cardinal were both discontinued on September 30, 1981 amid budget cuts, briefly ending rail service to Cincinnati. However, the Cardinal was restored on January 8, 1982. Union Terminal was remodeled as the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in 1990. The remodel enabled Amtrak to return to Union Terminal on July 29, 1991, eliminating the backup move to River Road station. River Road station was ultimately demolished in 2010 when the adjacent Waldvogel Viaduct was realigned.
Attributes
The station had a modern design and 1,500 square feet. It was small, with a 25-seat air conditioned waiting room. It also included a ticket counter, restrooms, a crew room, and a parking lot for 30 cars. The building itself cost $90,000. The station and its parking lot were designed so that both could be enlarged if traffic increased.
