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Amtrak to study additional Empire Builder stop for oil field workers
The oil boom could be over before the planning and permitting process is complete.
Can a sold out train experience a ridership increase?
Why a study? Announce the stop and go with it!
Get on with it. The stop is needed and doubt it would matter to BNsf in any event as far as a one minute stop each direction.
What’s wrong with a flag stop at Culbertson? Essex already exists that way without any fancy platforms and station house. I don’t think a flag stop is a big deal.
What’s wrong with a flag stop at Culbertson? Essex already exists that way without any fancy platforms and station house. I don’t think a flag stop is a big deal.
This adds additional “fuel” to the never ending study of the need for a second train on the Empire Builder route between Chicago and the Twin Cities. This study has been “on-going” for months and keeps getting extended. Relieving some of the corridor pressure on the Builder by giving CHI-MSP travelers an option will open up some space for oil field workers traveling from the Bakken to east of the Twin Cities…and many do. Their presence is quite noticable on the Builder in Wisconsin…they are nosier than the Amish! Welcom aboard guys and gals…we Badgers need to make our point for a second train.
And they’ve been drilling in this field for how long?
Nice business problem. Cars need to be added to the often sold out Empire Builder, a poured concrete platform with BNSF’s approval and a flag stop added. Perhaps Ed Ellis could lease Amtrak a few cars.
I agree with Jim Norton. If the traffic is there, they could set up a platform in a couple of days or less. No big deal. Train stops on request. They can make it wheel-chair accessible later on if necessary. I doubt many oilfield workers have the need for a ramp.
Good point Eric from Alaska! Add an additional coach/sleeper or add a second train. Boardman talks a lot about long distance train support so put up or shut up.
What’s there to study? If you can sell more tickets. surprise, you make more money. The study will cost more then any station.
“Studies,reviews”, etc. are the hallmarks (and decision avoidance) of government bureaucracies which Amtrak is.
The mayor of Culbertson shouldn’t hold his breath for a decision from a marshmallow factory.
This is another case where more equipment IS needed. Amtrak has the ball; now it needs to run with it. Anybody who thinks busses wil do the job must be smoking some potent weed. The winters are brutal in that neck of the woods. I don’t have to say what the results would be.
Rode Empire Builder in March and my feeling is that there needs to be 2 daily passenger trains in both directions west of Twin Cites and an additional passenger train over route through Billings & Missoula to provide much needed transport for the petroleum industry and tourism. Montana and North Dakota should be all over this!
I also agree that some sort of waiver mechanism should be in place to allow a strip of asphalt/bus shelter temporary stop to test the waters while all the stupid “studies” and red tape can be addressed. If it OK for Bolt Bus and Mega Bus to set up shop any where in a parking lot or curb right at the Amtrak station then passenger rail should have some way to add service where needed!
They will have to build a platform that meets current accesibility standards? Why? Most of the platforms being used now are too low and would not meet the standards. Many of those platforms are hardly better than level ground alongside the track. As others have said, start the service NOW!
The flagstop at Essex is a superior concrete stand and shouldnt take long to build. Culbertson should go ahead and build it and have Amtrak start on a trial basis, if anything eliminate the Wolfpoint stop.
Building a rail platform is a bargain basement deal compared to an airport, or a new highway or toll road. Also, the existing rail lines and highways can haul the oil, negating the need for a pipeline.