It’s silly to plan future based on train services from 60-70 years ago.
Why tie Madison to Twin Cities services? Just connect Madison to Milwaukee as a corridor.
I think the Minneapolis Star-Tribune was the first to report that the train was profitable in May. According to the May Amtrak performance report the train generated $.3 million of ticket revenue and $.5 million of direct operating expense. I believe this excludes equipment annuities and/or depreciation expenses. That means the first 20 days of service lost at least $.2 million. The service received $.3 million of state subsidies which brought total reported “revenue” to $.6 million.
It will be intereresting to see how it has performed financially during the peak summer months.
They have the approval already from CPKC for a second train without any required additional capital improvements beyond what was required for the first. One issue I see here is State follow through on these requirements. If the States do not do the capital improvements that CPKC required as a condition, it will over time sour the working relationship they have with CPKC.
Wisconsin is having problems with funds for the Muskego Yard bypass project due to inflation, the costs of that project has risen and the original Federal grant does not cover the cost. Ordinarily one would say the State taxpayer should step in and bridge the difference but Wisconsin is trying for another Federal grant. Long delay there and probably might not happen. If that doesn’t happen, plans for Chicago to Milwaukee additional frequencies are on hold until it does. Probably dream plans of a Chicago-Milwaukee-Green Bay train are on hold as well.
As for popularity of the route, it was still fairly popular when the last Milwaukee Road passenger train ran that route. The morning and afternoon Hiawatha patronage was still pretty decent when the last trains made their run. I think they were losing money but they had decent consists. I think the route was well engineered and built right to start instead of rush construction and we’ll fix it later approach that still haunts a lot of rail routes today. Because in a lot of cases, we’ll fix it later…never happens.