Amtrak is exclusively a middle-of-the-night affair in Cleveland

State of play: All four daily departures from Cleveland — the Floridian and Lakeshore Limited lines, eastbound and westbound — have scheduled departures between 1:54am and 5:50am.

Zzzzoom in: I managed to get about three hours of sleep before my 3am alarm Monday morning.

• And even with the comfortable reclining seats, I only slept in 15- to 20-minute increments as the Lakeshore Limited traveled west across Ohio.
• By Waterloo, Indiana, I was up for the day.

Between the lines: Dicey on-time performance was a major knock against Amtrak in the past, with delays on shared tracks often lengthening trips by hours.

Yes, but: My train arrived at Chicago's Union Station several minutes early, with no delays on the roughly seven-hour trip.

By the numbers: Amtrak concluded 2025 with 34.5 million passengers, an all-time record, and logged on-time performance improvements.

The bottom line: The current routes that pass through Cleveland are optimized for travelers on the East Coast and in Chicago.

• One of the benefits of proposed Amtrak expansion, including a three-times-a-day route from Cleveland to Cincinnati, could feature departures at more reasonable hours.