Search results

Yup, that's exactly what the sort of feedback I was looking for. If the trains ran like clockwork so theres no concern of missing a connection, if you're on a long multi-day trip with a connection is having a handful of hours between trains a nice break or a waste of time? If it helps frame...

For those of you who have done long-disance trips in the US with a connection, is a long connection a welcome break or a boring waste of time? Although there are exceptions (and occasional bad individual experiences) most people are relatively comfortable booking a domestic airline connection...

This may only be a partial history based on some quick combing of timetimes on The Museum of Amtrak Timtables website -- anybody else feel free to jump in :) Empire Builder ran CHI-MSP-HVR-SEA as 7 + 8 North Coast Hiawatha ran CHI-MSP-BIL-SEA as 9 + 10 Arrowhead ran MSP-DLH as 760 + 761 In...

Not too likely in my opinion -- those were North Coast Hiawatha numbers, and given the fairly shot of restoring that I doubt they'd tie those up. Plus low digits are not generally used for state-supported routes. Much more likely, if uninspired, is use of the exiting Hiawatha numbers the TCMC...

Thanks for finding/posting this. Those are some big hurdles which were cleared. Not that any of them were likely to become an impass and kill or jeopardize the TCMC itself, but instead the sorts of nagging issues which can make things drag out. And when seemingly-inevitable things drag out...

Operating reliably will be key in building the MSP-CHI traffic. I pulled stats for the past two years and it's pretty ugly eastbound. If the train departs on time things are pretty good, but if not...well... For this I used arriving Chicago within 30 minutes of schedule as on-time. Overall...

Latest updates posted today on Youtube -- this appears to be a presentation by the Great River Rail Commission. Highlights: --They are close to the final agreement between Amtrak and the three states, including how to incorporate funding from an FRA restoration & enhancement grant made to...

My own votes would be for: Hiawatha Service for local CHI-MKE trains Twin Cities Hiawatha for CHI-MKE-STP Fox Cities Hiawatha for CHI-MKE-GRB Badger Hiawatha for CHI-MKE-MSN Nobody is gonna get on the wrong train based on name confusion -- destination and time are usually announced, and we...

Though it's not technically wrong to reference the Mississippi River with a name like Great River (and Amtrak has surprisingly little trackage along it) only about 1/3 of this CHI-STP routing is along the Mississippi. And the coloquial associations most people have of the mighty Mississippi...

Hi Larry -- wondering if you have any insight on any of these questions: (1) Any strong indicators on the routing between Milwaukee and Fond du Lac? Existing likely routing would take it west from MIlwaukee on the CPKC to Duplainville and switch northward on the CN line. But I've also heard...

Specific to the original question, these are the most populous metro areas withou and Amtrak stop. Technically PHX and MSN might arugably be removed because of a rural stop away from the urban center but within the metro area. It's just over 1/4 of the largest metros not served by Amtrak...

Here's 51-100 51 1,157,752 Grand Rapids–Wyoming–Kentwood, MI MSA 52 1,057,597 Tucson, AZ MSA 53 1,056,701 Rochester, NY MSA 54 1,034,123 No No Tulsa, OK MSA 55 995,638 No No Urban Honolulu, HI MSA 56 976,671 Omaha, NE-IA MSA 57 972,913 New Orleans–Metairie, LA...

Here's the top 100 from Wiki based on 2022 metro popuations (MSA, not the higher-order CSA) showing who is missing an Amtrak stop in their urban core and also within their official metro bounds. Because Maricopa is within a county (Pinal) included in the Phoenix MSA its metro area is not...

Very much appreciate all the time you spent on this AND that you were kind enough to share it.

Another vote of thanks for doing this! A couple of updates: --The Madison-Janesville-South Beloit-Rockford-Chicago bus still operates. You can book a trip on 2/16 from any of those destinations to St Louis (for examlpe) via the bus to Chicago. --The brown dot at the top of Upper Michigan at...

Long-distance trains moving at slow speeds (or even 0 mph) is indeed influenced by grade, track quality, freight interference and the like. But if you're talking about calculated trip speed between two points, that's also significantly impacted by padded schedules. That's especially true prior...

No trains would run just MSP-Madison. There are to be CHI-MKE-MSN trains which terminate in Madison, while others run CHI-MKE-MSN-MSP via Eau Claire or (potentially) La Crosse. Westbound the trains will follow the CP tracks from Chicago to Watertown (same as the Empire Builder) where they...

Amtrak Alerts on twitter posts them most of the time. (There is also a separate one specific to NEC...just seach for it.) Also for substantial / proactive cancellations there is often a link on the home page of Amtrak. Specific to the Empire Builder it is axed both directions for the 11th...

Yeah, they proactively did a bunch of winter cancels wtihin the Midwest days ahead of the storm but at least some of it was a bust. Lake Michigan kept snow along the Hiawatha route to at best 2" but the previously-planned reductions stood. For what it's worth the storm heading for the same...

The jump from $400 to $650 is definitely huge, but I'd argue the $400 monthly pass was perhaps too massive a discount. For weekday commuters there are usually about 22 weekdays per month, or 44 total trips. Old rate of $400 per month $400 / 44 trips = about $9.10 per trip that's nearly 64% off...