Do not get me wrong. Those last mile creepings into some stations is madening. Absolutely agree that getting into stations quickly means getting rid of those slow approches and leaving quickly is also important.
They can’t raise the speed into Milwaukee that much as they have a S curve before the station which restricts it and a very tight curve at the last point into the station which also restricts to about 10-15 mph. I think where I was going with this is they intend to extend CTC through the station which should increase a tiny bit of the restricted speed into the station. Primarily the large gap in CTC is with the Empire Builder and Twin Cities leaving the Milwaukee Station for the Twin Cities. That has always been a METRA like crawl until cutoff tower where Muskego Yard leads join the mainline. The biggest improvement will be moving the Freight trains off the main and routing through Muskego Yard. There was some interference there getting into and out of Milwaukee some times.
Without a doubt though the very worst issue right now with Chicago to Milwaukee fluidity are METRA operations South of the Wisconsin border. They want to fix in part but some of the projects are stalled on the Illinois side for various reasons.
Personally, I don’t think they will ever get serious attention due to METRA’s various political and financial issues and it would be far more expedient to put down a third track where they would dedicate to Amtrak and express. Long-Term, METRA prefers triple track for more efficient station skip express service so possibly joint interest there. However, priorities on the METRA side I don’t think is at the point yet. So will probably wait for more Chicago to Milwaukee frequencies or someone or some agency to champion it.
I also think they
Preview of actual service.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/nh7rNBXYrW7iamzi/?mibextid=oFDknk
I don’t think that anything like that will happen soon. It may require an interstate agreement to allow it and I can’t see Wisconsin agreeing to help subsidize a service that is primarily oriented to Illinois. Also consider that the MILW North Line was cut back to Fox Lake before the RTA was established.
I posted a link to Amtraks FY24 to whenever service plan. States in there that all new state supported or for that matter all new trains will start with Horizon coaches due to equipment shorthandedness. I believe they plan to switch it over to new equipment in 2026 or 2027, does not state that last part explicitly in the plan though.
Metra has always operated to Kenosha.
Doesn’t seem like they want to go to Chicago and prefer the cross-platform transfer in Kenosha. They floated the idea of Amtrak as a contract of the trains North of Kenosha in the link below. I would think using Amtrak as a contractor negates the state border issue:
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/krm-commuter-rail-study-mitchell-international-airport/
Kenosha is on the Metra UP North line, formerly C&NW. North of Kenosha the line is not in repair suitable for 79mph.
I know this and WisDOT knows. This is only a study given via Inflation Reduction Act money. Earlier they projected several hundred million to get the line and signaling upgraded and to buy equipment. The City of Milwaukee owns the small plot of land where the former C&NW passenger line used to connect to the Milwaukee Road Chicago to Milwaukee Corridor just South of the Amtrak Depot in Milwaukee…which was formerly the joint Milwaukee Road / C&NW depot Milwaukee Depot from 1965 to Amtrak Formation.
So they are at a minimum preserving the options to bring this service back.
Today’s News Wire indicates that the “Borealis” got off with a bang. CPKC has been a co-operative host through the whole process and it appears that the demand is there. Any suggestions on other routes that could support additional service?
There’s dozens that could support additional service-- they just don’t have a cooperating RR to work with as CPKC has been in this cae.
The Midwest Venture fleet is owned by Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri so Amtrak is contractually obligated to keep that equipment in those states. Minnesota will have to wait until the Airo sets arrive to get the new stuff.
That maybe true but also Amtrak has a policy that all new state supported trains will run with Horizon equipment potentially with an Amfleet car for cafe / business class if a Horizon car is not setup that way. Their plan is to use Horizon cars until 2026 at which point they think they should have enough other equipment available.
Southern Rail Commission website has status reports on each of the new trains they are pushing with Amtrak. Last I looked they were fairly current with updates.
Eventually all eighty-eight Midwest cars will be placed in service (at this rate coincident with Haley’s comet) which will finish freeing up what Horizon/Amfleet is still in service in the compact. Still, Minnesota could ante up a few bucks and join the compact. They are still making coaches in Florin.
Have the Venture Cafe Cars joined the Venture Coaches yet? Or is Amtrak still using the Old Amfleet Cafe cars?
To the best of my knowledge all 88 coach, business and cafe/lounge cars have been built and delivered. 20 of the coaches are stand alone, knuckle couplers on each end. 34 coaches have a coupler on one end. The 17 business and 17 cafe/lounge cars have a coupler on one end. I think the 34 coaches will be semipermanent coupled together and the same with business and cafe/lounge cars. Everything has/is going through the Byzantine acceptance process made all the more difficult by the equipment delivered different than what was ordered. As such the cafe/lounge cars will be the last to enter service.
A post on Reddit indicated that Minnesota has joined the Midwest Consortium within the last several days. That should be easy to confirm, perhaps with some technical details about equipment to be used.
Since I saw Amfleet in the video of the equipment move, but the train coaches are Horizon, I suspect the continuing use of Amcafe until more modern consists take over…
Kudos to them if that’s the case. Amtrak would much rather lease equipment to the states for obvious reasons. The problem is the eighty-eight car order was sized for the service that existed (with a little wiggle room) at the time of the order. Eventually all cars are accepted and someday CN/IC will be brought to heel allowing something other than Superliners and mile-long consists on their railroad. Eventually the Midwest fleet gets stretched to its limit and decisions will have to be made: order more cars or lease Airo sets from Amtrak.
I am still scratching my head over what the strategy is in that state. They seem to have intelligent people in their DOT rail passenger area and they gave Wisconsin some good advice about setting up a station in Pewaukee along with decent demographic data to support their point of view (no clue if Wisconsin will do this but I suspect they listened because they did notice the Milwaukee Airport Station has boosted ridership on the Hiawatha).
Minnesota doesn’t seem to have a real long term strategy though. Just seems like they want to get Amtrak trains running no matter if they make any real sense or not. The Northstar I think was a good overnight train they could have tweaked or built on but then they eliminated it. Then the Minneapolis to Duluth service, would make a lot more sense if they had a better solution long-term to the termination point in Minneapolis. No real service proposed or planned to the Mayo Clinic. No Twin Cities to Kansas City or Des Moines service planned?
Very strange.