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Amtrak extends summer schedule for Michigan services
the timekeeping on ns seems to be getting worse and worse -
all the way from cleveland to chicago. while 49 is a basket
case most days off of csx (and amtrak from nyp to sdy), 29
routinely gets to cleveland close to on-time. it then suffers delays of two hours plus most days, and never arrives less than
about one hour late. two years ago, on-time at cle (with no
other problems) would be routinely yield 20 to 30 minutes early into
chi. and, while we’re on the subject – 3 and 4 (which overall
are doing pretty well, considering) lose at least 40 minutes
between garden city and lamar every day – is this track work
or just continuing deterioration of that section of railroad?
As for the line between Garden City and Lamar for trains 3 and 4, the track continues to get worse. there is now a 60 MPH slow order placed on that section of track. I don’t think governor Sam Brownback of Kansas has any intention of providing funding to get that track up to snuff, BNSF doesn’t either.
hey mo and mo – thanks for the update on garden city/lamar –
for what it is worth, there is a lot going on in the long term,
both inside and outside of bnsf concerning the whole “raton”
route. every time i hear anyone - politicians, railroad officials,
anybody - explain ‘what is going to happen’ or even what
might happen, i observe with a jaundiced eye. that is a very
fluid situation and any number of things could push it one way
or another. that said, i have heard bnsf is at least maintaining the trackage at a certain level, and i have been
hoping that garden city/lamar might simply be in some sort
of maintenance blitz, as opposed to neglect…or indifference!
i meant mel and mo – sorry!!
Is the Pere Marquette Amtrak’s blueprint for the proposed Rockford-Chicago service? If so, I call it poor planning. A single daily round trip departing Chicago in the evening and returning the next morning effectively eliminates half of the potential ridership, and the Pere Marquette has followed exactly that pattern for years now. The midpoint stop is at St. Joseph MI, a delightful lakefront town which would surely see an increase in Amtrak passengers IF an overnight stay was not required. Ironically, the UP portion of the Rockford service passes a similar day-trip destination, the Illinois Railway Museum, but Amtrak ignores the possibility of even a flag stop at IRM or in nearby Union, IL, while the initial routing and timing would make a day trip to IRM practical only for Rockford residents.