I'm baffled by this too - what's the downside of continuing on to St. Paul after the stop in Minneapolis? It adds, what, 3% to the distance of the trip, so presumably a similar amount in fuel and wear and tear? Nobody getting on at Target Field would notice the change, and stopping in Minneapolis first probably wouldn't be a dealbreaker for anyone trying to transfer at St. Paul. Seems like a fairly small price to pay for that connection to the wider Amtrak network, and I'd imagine servicing trains is much easier at a larger facility with existing Amtrak service.
To keep this thread about the TCMC, and not deviate too much the NLX, which has a separate thread, I'll take the converse of your question: Extending the TCMC to Minneapolis Target Field Station (TFS) from St. Paul Union Depot (SPUD). It's not anything about distance or wear and tear--it's primarily about time, and a little about the platforms at TFS. Your profile says you are from Atlanta; I will not assume you are or are not familiar with MSP and what it takes to get between St. Paul Union Depot.
And there's robust transit by bus and light rail from SPUD and TFS to each other and all the other parts of the Twin Cities.
Exactly! I do understand why people have concerns about lacking a "direct connection," but there's truly a lot of options available.
The attachment doesn't seem to be available anymore.
Oh, darn! I guess I didn't add the picture properly--still new to how adding pictures to a post works here. All it was is a screengrab of a Instagram/Facebook 'Reel' from the RPA with the question of (paraphrasing) "When will the TCMC start?" And the answer being (paraphrasing) "It's rumored to be coming soon, maybe in the next couple of months. Have heard that equipment storage issues in relation to Amtrak's lease at SPUD may be what's holding things up."
As I mentioned briefly above, it was a screengrab of a 'story' or 'Reel' from the official Rail Passengers Association's Facebook/Instagram account. One of their staff (I think Joseph Aiello) was en route to Kansas City for the most recent FRA long-distance study meeting and did what is called an "Ask Me Anything" session through the RPA's account. He was answering various Amtrak-related questions and someone asked about the status of the TCMC, and he answered with what I posted above.
If it was their story reel it may already be gone since they only last a short time on Instagram to start with.
Correct, I took a screenshot of it but it refused to upload here for me. If I have time later, I will try to post it again for posterity's sake. If anyone has tips for how to include pictures in one of these posts, that would be helpful! Despite being a younger person some of the user interface aspects of the platform AU uses confuse me!
You should be able to include an image by clicking the "insert image" button at the top of the text editor.
The Great River Rail Commission was throwing a fit over Amtrak trying to copyrighting the name “Great River” so that’s probably why the name was changed.
Good question about the California dinette cars. No idea but it would be really nice for the service. Somehow doubt they'll be used for this service, though.
(With the third, of course, being the Northstar commuter rail line from Mpls to Big Lake, MN).Yes, I heard that as well! Between that issue with the GRRC (still don't understand their unhappiness) and (apparently) MnDOT and WisDOT flat-out not liking the name, I'm not shocked at the change!
If you Google "borealis", you get, almost exclusively, hits on "aurora borealis", but "borealis' does not mean the Northern Lights. "Borealis" is an adjective meaning "northern". There also exist the "Borealis Basin", a very large, very ancient depression or crater on Mars which includes its north polar region, and the "boreal forest" (aka taiga), the large cold forest covering much of Canada, Alaska, northern Europe and Russia.Good question about the California dinette cars. No idea but it would be really nice for the service. Somehow doubt they'll be used for this service, though.
If the Borealis name is indeed final, when this service and the (knock on wood) Northern Lights Express between Mpls - Duluth are running, there will be three routes in MN named for either stars or northern atmospheric phenomena
I love your historical and technical explanation, John! Very interesting, especially the explanation about the ancient Greeks! So you are definitely right in a technical sense
Giving it a Greek name may result in a protest from the Turkish government.I love your historical and technical explanation, John! Very interesting, especially the explanation about the ancient Greeks! So you are definitely right in a technical sense
However, I am 98% sure that those who named this train were not thinking of the real meaning or origin of borealis, and mean the train to be named after the aurora borealis due to it traversing two states where that phenomenon can be seen. (Plus, the name Northern Lights name was taken) Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong and have someone at a ribbon cutting say "And we named this train Borealis meaning Greek for Northern!" We'll just have to wait and see
