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NS, Michigan make progress on line sale
NS will receive $140M and will still be able to provide freight service over the route without having to pay for any future maintenance; Merry Christmas.
274 million dollars to get to Chicago 30 minutes faster? What a waste of taxpayers money!!
274 million dollars to get to Chicago 30 minutes faster? What a waste of taxpayers money!!
Lets hope that the funds provided by the FRA to MDOT for the signal upgrades does not “disappear” into the general budget to cover other short-falls… Hopefully the FRA will not actually “give” funds, but wait for completed work and reimbursement requests to be submitted and verified.
It’s the 30 minutes that make rail travel an attractive option in competition with road and air. 5 hours is considered the point where traffic shifts from air to rail. Decently paid jobs go where infrastructure especially transportation is best. Sweat shops go where labour and taxes are cheep. This is money well spent. And since MDOT is not Santa Claus NS won’t use those tracks for free.
This is amout more than just getting to Chicago 30 minutes faster. It’s about not having the line downgraded underneath Amtrak trains. NS does not use this as a through route anymore. This line is nothing more than a branchline for freight service, extending from Kalamazoo to Wayne. By purchasing the line from NS, The State of Michigan can be assured the line will remain up to the standards for fast passenger service rather than being downgraded to 25 mph status, which is what NS’s maintaince of the line would result it if they continued to own the line.
Also, don’t be shocked if this line doesn’t retain NS freight service for long after the sale. NS very well could lease freight service rights on the line once the sale is completed. IIRC Watco already leases/owns the line from Elkhart to Grand Rapids. Heavy rumors are they have purchased the Ann Arbor Railroad as well, meaning they could be positioning themselves to operate from Toledo-Grand Rapids. via Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo.
The 274 million makes Michigan the OWNER of the tracks and right of way. As previously stated it will also enable the line to be maintained to passenger trains speeds in the future as well as being raised from 79mph to 110mph in the next couple years. A lot of ‘taxpayer money’ has been ‘wasted’ on new highways that save similar amounts of driving time. Witness the new I-69 in southern Indiana. Already 1.5 BILLION dollars spent and only half built. This to save 15 minutes driving time. I’d rather see it spend on high speed rail in the right places. The Chicago to Detroit route has huge potential.
Good for Michigan! I just went from Dearborn to Chicago on the Wolverine and the trip lasted only four hours and thirty-five minutes - we were twenty minutes early into Chicago. Too bad Florida doesn’t have comparable rapid inter-city train service, of course, they do have a quaint trolley between Ybor City and Tampa.
WATCO’s website say nothing about a purchase of Ann Arbor or anything recent in Michigan.
Despite recent problems with trackwork on this line, it looks like the ridership has held. I-94 is one of the worst highways that gets beaten up by snowplows every winter, and the holes in the road pop like popcorn every spring. That means road repairs during the summer, which will likely last for only the fall tourist season. It’s also time amtrak consider rerouting one of its two long-distance trains, either the Capitol Limited or the Lake Shore Limited, between Chicago and Cleveland through the Wolverine corridor to offer a fourth night time option on this route.
Eric V Schwandt, are you a disciple of the infamous Jeffery Guse? Sure sounds like it!
A great move for the traveling public. The 30 mins saved is fine, but control of the line is the more important aspect. This line is Amtrak self-supporting and is ripe for expansion of service. Taking it out of the hands of NS will allow the State of Michigan and Amtrak to make the real needed improvement – increasing frequency. The route used to host 4 round trips, and could support that again, and likely even more. A simple Ann Arbor-Chicago Thanksgiving holiday weekend special boosted total ridership more than 16% higher year-over-year.
The route is a strong competitor to the old Wabash Det-StL route and NYC’s water level, among others. It has a history of being controlled by other railroads so it could be de-emphasized and not compete with those other routes. NS ownership was no different. NS stuffed everything onto the Adrian-Ft.Wayne ex Wabash, not able to spare even 1 daily through freight for the “Michigan Line”.
The old Michigan Central double-track provided an alternate route to Chicago and a gateway to Detroit and Canada. Here’s to hoping that promise can be realized again for both passenger and freight service.