The Michigan to Ontario connection has been gone for a few years.
When the Chicago-Toronto train ran, Amtrak and VIA each had one train, that would make the entire trip between the 2 end points.
A friend of mine will be doing the Rocky Mountaineer tour towards the end of this month. I will be interested in hearing his experiences.
Great idea but VIA is short of LD equipment as well. It cannot even make up an extra Canadian ( # 1& 2 ) consist when the enroute train takes extended delays causing outbound origination delays.
Winnipeg is not much farther into Canada then Montreal or Vancouver, so I might guess an all ATK operation would work there also.
However, as was pointed out before, a Calgary or Winnipeg to MSP train does not seem to be justified in terms of demand.
My post was in response to an equipment discussion, rather than a demand potential.
I was referring to CSX500’s and Buslist’s posts, not yours.
No, it would not be viable.
Work out a joint agreement between VIA and Amtrak to route the Canadian through Chicago, Milwaukee and MSP up to Winnipeg. Improve timekeeping which is nearly impossible to operate on-time presently and market the train to major American markets. Route through Calgary and southern Alberta on the way to Vancouver and you have opportunity to improve financial performance.
You would have to deal with more roads than Amtrak and VIA. Amtrak does not operate into Winnipeg, nor does VIA operate into the United States. You would also want to have efficient customs operations at the borders.
Leave the Canadian where its at. I would not want to travel through the US on a trip between Toronto and Winnipeg.
Your routing is for an operator such as the American Orient Express/Grandlux once was……running a strictly tourist train. (And we know what happened to them!)
Question… How can Rocky Mountaineer consistently fill trains on a near daily basis in the summer and fall and have for close to 30 years……where operators like AOE and Pullman Rail Journeys can’t in a country with a population 10 times that of Canada with a proportional number of tourists?
Location is everything. The Rocky Mountaineer has more scenery than it can promote. AOE in its final iteration billed itself as a routing to the Greenbrier, the scenery is pretty good but it isn’t the Canadian Rockies. Pullman Rail Journeys was a Chicago-New Orleans overnighter primarily promoting luxury travel.
Friend of mine from Florida is currently taking a vacation including the Rocky Mountaineer. When it comes to successful businesses it comes down to location & service; when you have both you get happy customers and good word of mouth advertising; advertizing that money can’t buy in the media.
Remove the scenery and RM has a superior service offering over any other rail passenger service on the North American continent. The pricing for that superior service is less that top tier VIA service, less than Pullman, and far less than AOE. Price is really what drives folks to RM. Yes the scenery is great but if AOE had the Rocky Mountaineer route concession it would still go insolvent in my opinion because it didn’t understand service vs price. Same with VIA.
RM are better at pricing, marketing and building business relationships. Rocky Mountaineer is closer to the Cruise Ship model than any other of the alternates in my view.
Pullman Rail Journeys…too short in life span to build relationships with hotels, livery companies, experiment with on board catering, or build a bus tour type operation like RM, though I am not sure Pullman had a business plan. Probably no narration on the trip on lineside views or points of interest…like RM. RM’s dining car operation seemed to be designed to be low cost onboard and RM didn’t carry sleeping cars but had assigned seats throughout. Additionally, RM has more car attendants per car than Amtrak, AOE or Pullman had with RM’ Gold Leaf Service, remember seeing 3-4 car attendents per car. Serving alchol, pushing purchases from their tour catalog and onboard gift shop, providing at your seat snacks.
AOE, priced themselves into the stratosphere but offered nothing once you stepped off the train. Contrary to RM who will carry your luggage from train to hotel room, arrange side