Recent content by John Bredin

The problem is Madison people are generally in Madison, not as exposed to talk-radio elsewhere in the state where Madison and the city of Milwaukee are the reliable boogeymen, scapegoats, and punching-bags (all in one!) of every ambitious demagogue.

So I went back and found I was mistaken somewhat: the City of Mobile is being asked for money. However, it's a modest sum, as some googling shows the City of Mobile annual budget is over $330 million and the City has an "unassigned general fund balance of $132 million of which $55 million is...

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but isn't the measure before the city council of Mobile to approve *zoning* for the station (at the location of an existing parking lot no less!) not to spend any money? Even if City of Mobile has to build the platform and shelter at its expense, that's not being...

As the tracker map shows only 1340 just west of Milwaukee Station, and 340 *would* be south of Milwaukee Airport if it existed but there's nothing there, I presume the screen at Chicago Union Station was in error and there is no separate 340 tonight.

Interesting that tonight the Borealis is a little late, but the corresponding Hiawatha 340 is on time. Either the screen is wrong, or Amtrak sent out a Hiawatha trainset from Milwaukee as 340 when the Borealis became late.

That sounds right. As it says in your link, "May 6, Portage, Wis. to Bensenville, Ill."

I was running lunchtime errands in downtown Deerfield (IL) at 1:35pm when I heard what sounded like a steam train with chugging and a steam whistle! I was less than a block from the tracks but there were buildings and trees in the way so I saw little, but I'd swear I saw some steam or smoke. The...

As to concerns about Hiawatha (CHI-MKE) passengers displacing Borealis (beyond MKE) passengers or vice versa, WisDOT & IDOT have planned for some time now to expand the Hiawatha to 10 round-trips. Money was appropriated for projects to increase capacity in Illinois but local NIMBYs torpedoed...

Reviving this thread as I'm looking into a July trip to Glacier Nat'l Park via the Empire Builder and particularly into what one can see and do without renting a car. Because rental cars ain't cheap, one of us shouldn't be stuck looking at the road rather than the scenery, and I've heard...

I like the Angus cheeseburger, it's my go-to meal on the Lincoln Service. De gustibus non disputandum and all that.

Judging from the two stations on Google Streetview, Burlingame depot looks like it would make a nice and cozy apartment while modern Millbrae Caltrain/BART station doesn't. I hope Caltrain tries to recoup their money by renting out the apartments if they can legally (zoning, etc.), especially...

A train that leaves the Bay Area at night and arrives in Los Angeles in the morning, and a train that leaves Los Angeles at night and arrives in the Bay Area in the morning, doesn't need heavy population in the middle where the train is passing through in the small hours of the morning. And it...

Technically, there IS a direct entrance to the northern platforms only, the stairs-only Madison St. entrance. But: (1) it's not at all accessible, and useless with any large amount of luggage, due to having only stairs, (2) it has a big rolling gate so it can be closed when the station is...

With all due respect, Amtrak left Midway for SPUD because a city-center legacy station was considered an upgrade. Unlike some old stations that survive as mostly not a train station, it still has the concourse leading out to the platforms. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the aerial view...

Can't CNBC use its own resources (vast conglomerate Universal!) rather than relying on a hit job analysis from the reliably anti-rail "Reason" Foundation?!