Chicago to Rockford service

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MetraUPWest

Service Attendant
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Chicago, IL
http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/223-Million-Announced-to-Restore-Chicago-to-Rockford-Amtrak-Service-254803161.html?device=phone

I came across this news article today. I would think this route would generate a decent amount of traffic.

I have run freight on the UP line to Belvidere many times. It is currently single track dark territory with no sidings. I wonder how much it will be upgraded?

It's too had they aren't planning on putting a station in Union, IL. It would be totally awesome to be able to take Amtrak to the Illinois Railway Museum!
 
Interestingly, the only shots of an Amtrak train in the video (including the thumbnail) were the Hiawatha in the downtown Milwaukee, WI station. :D
 
LOL, I thought that was pretty funny myself! Here is a more detailed article by the Chicago Tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-amtrak-rail-service-between-chicago-and-rockford-to-begin-in-2015-20140410,0,5594741.story?track=rss

It looks like the train will run the Milwaukee West line and connect to the UP at Big Timber (the tracks currently parallel each other there). It will be dark territory from there to Rockford at first, but they will be upgrading the dark territory to CTC by 2016. That will be a big help, since Amtrak can only run 59mph in dark territory.
 
Aha. Very interesting, and thanks for the links.

The initial thoughts were that the all-CN route would be simplest and fastest. They started negotiations with CN last year. It seems, however, that CN is keeping up its corporate (post-Hunter-Harrison) reputation for being intransigently passenger-hostile. So IDOT has reverted to the alternative route. It seems that UP is getting more and more "passenger-friendly".

If the Milwaukee West - UP route actually gets going, I would strongly suggest that the Illinois Railway Museum start a special fund to build a mainline platform directly at the museum. I'd donate to that fund, as I've considered visiting IRM and decided not to because you can't get there by rail. It would probably be a popular fund and would likely eventually succeed. Unfortunately IRM seems to have NO actual "general contact" phone number or email listed ANYWHERE on their website, not even in the "Contact Us" section, so I have no way of even suggesting this, except by US postal mail. (This is a bizarre oversight. Maybe I'll send them a letter.)
 
What is "dark territory"? Does that mean there aren't any signals?
 
Yep! No signals whatsoever- trains are granted main track authority by a track warrant (piece of paper). The FRA limits passenger trains to 59mph max in dark territory.

I LOVE the idea of an IRM stop. I don't think they'd ever do it, but I'd love it if they did!
 
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Yep! No signals whatsoever- trains are granted main track authority by a track warrant (piece of paper). The FRA limits passenger trains to 59mph max in dark territory.

I LOVE the idea of an IRM stop. I don't think they'd ever do it, but I'd love it if they did!
I learned at some point that IRM has an interesting procedure for projects and acquisitions -- each vehicle has its own dedicated fund. Each vehicle must pay, from its fund, for the construction of the track it sits on. Each vehicle must pay, from its fund, for the construction of a proportion of a building, if it wants indoor storage. Furthermore, each department has its own fund. This goes first towards that department's operating needs, then towards their infrastructure maintenance, then towards their favorite vehicle. Furthermore, there's a separate land purchase fund. And for other projects, each of *them* has their own fund.... including the fund for the proposed solar panels project. (I may not have this exactly right, but you get the picture: hundreds of dedicated funds.)

...so it seems completely reasonable for IRM to set up a "mainline platform fund" and see how popular it gets. If you're administering hundreds of dedicated funds, administering one more is not a big deal. Either it gets enough money, eventually... or before it gets enough money, the mainline train goes away or IRM moves, in which case the fund gets folded into the IRM general fund.
 
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If they succeed in starting service in 2015, presumably later in the year, then 2015 will see at least 2 service expansions for Amtrak: 1) Chicago to Rockford and 2) the re-route to the CT River Line in early 2015 for the Vermonter with additional service to Greenfield MA to follow later. Still not clear on when Chicago to Quad Cities will start.

For those who missed in the Quad Cities - Danville proposed future service thread, here is the state press release: Governor Quinn Announces $223 Million to Restore Chicago to Rockford Amtrak Service. Excerpts from the press release that provide details:

Todays announcement is possible because following two years of negotiations, the state of Illinois has decided to switch to a new route, utilizing tracks owned by Metra and the Union Pacific Railroad. The new northern route was selected following lengthy negotiations with the Canadian National Railway, whose tracks were originally chosen for the service. Switching to the new tracks will ensure that service begins in 2015 and isnt held up by continued delays.

...

The $223 million in track, signaling and safety improvements are funded primarily through Governor Quinns Illinois Jobs Now! capital program. Preliminary improvements to the Union Pacific tracks will accommodate Amtrak trains at 59 mph by the end of next year. Final improvements are planned to be completed in 2016, at which point speeds will increase to 79 mph and a second Chicago-Rockford round trip will be added. The state will continue to work with the Canadian National Railroad to extend this corridor to its ultimate destination of Dubuque, Iowa, stopping in Freeport and Galena.

Included in the $223 million investment announced today is $7.85 million to rehabilitate the temporary station on 7th Street in Rockford and $5.85 million to be split between Huntley and Belvidere to develop their own stations. The existing Metra station in Elgin will serve as its Amtrak stop.
So after wasting 2 years on negotiations with CN, they will start the service with one slower daily train with Horizon coach cars, finish the track signal upgrades in 2016, then expand to 2 daily trains when the new corridor bi-level cars are available, probably in 2017.
 
Still not clear on when Chicago to Quad Cities will start.
Target is late 2015.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140123/news/701239763/

As of January they were finishing preliminary engineering (and no, I have no idea why engineering is taking so long on this). The claim is that final design would proceed very quickly after that (I don't know why...) We should see construction during this construction season, unless something unexpected comes up.
 
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Still not clear on when Chicago to Quad Cities will start.
Target is late 2015.
Be nice to see a update on the status of the Chicago to Quad cities project. If they do manage to start CHI-Quad Cities service before the end of 2015, it will make a hat trick for the year with 3 service expansions.
Then by or in 2017, service to Roanoke VA, maybe Ethan Allen to Burlington VT, maybe Vermonter to Montreal, additional service frequencies and some trip time reductions as the $8 billion is stimulus funds is finally spent on construction work.
 
Making this trackage passenger friendly also partly achieves a goal of the metropolitan planing 2020 plan of 20 some years ago, which envisioned extending Metra service at least to Huntley.
 
I was on an excursion train last fall with a railfan/CN dispatcher (shhh..... don't tell) from the Chicago area and asked him how the negotiations with Amtrak were going.

He answered that "After Amtrak sued us over timekeeping with the City of New Orleans upper management wants nothing more to do with additional Amtrak trains on our lines."

Yes, that's hearsay but it does seem to paint an accurate backdrop for how Amtrak's negotiations with CN are going.
 
The Chicago rush hour now extends all the way to Wisconsin on I-90, with many workers commuting that distance daily. The Chicago to Rockford service is coming just in time as the suburban expansion now extends as far northwest as Marengo. I agree that Union would be an ideal place for a stop, but it looks like Huntley will probably be chosen. A while back Huntley had set aside land for a Metra stop between Union and the town of Huntley, but Union would be more logical. There is now plenty of open space to build a station. Union is easily accessible from Huntley, Marengo, Woodstock, Hampshire, and Harvard, all of which keep the construction industry busy as Chicagoland expands Northwest.
 
Interestingly, the only shots of an Amtrak train in the video (including the thumbnail) were the Hiawatha in the downtown Milwaukee, WI station. :D
Seems like a logical choice to me. They obviously weren't going to have recent footage of an Amtrak train in Rockford, and a Hiawatha

train in Milwaukee is a perfectly reasonably visual approximation of what Amtrak service to Rockford would be like. It's not like they showed

an Acela zipping up the NEC at 125 mph or a Superliner winding its way through the Rockies. They showed a Midwest corridor train...kind

of like what will eventually serve Rockford.
 
The Chicago rush hour now extends all the way to Wisconsin on I-90, with many workers commuting that distance daily. The Chicago to Rockford service is coming just in time as the suburban expansion now extends as far northwest as Marengo. I agree that Union would be an ideal place for a stop, but it looks like Huntley will probably be chosen. A while back Huntley had set aside land for a Metra stop between Union and the town of Huntley, but Union would be more logical. There is now plenty of open space to build a station. Union is easily accessible from Huntley, Marengo, Woodstock, Hampshire, and Harvard, all of which keep the construction industry busy as Chicagoland expands Northwest.
With one daily train to begin with, this will hardly be an alternative to I-90 for daily commuters. I assume the schedule will be a morning in-afternoon out pattern, which would hopefully facilitate leisure travelers and people with one-off meetings in Chicago. But it very likely won't work for too many 9-to-5 'ers.
 
The last Janesville train failed because it took twice as long as driving, because it was geared for freight, and because the schedule was hilariously not passenger oriented.
 
The last Janesville train failed because it took twice as long as driving, because it was geared for freight, and because the schedule was hilariously not passenger oriented.
Certainly. And you forgot: "And because it ended in Janesville."

Obviously a Janesville train that continues to Madison would be a different animal altogether. My comment was partly in jest, knowing it wasn't really an apples-to-apples comparison.

Speaking of hilarious, the Lake Country Limited is generally good for a laugh or two in the category of most pathetic Amtrak train ever:

 
What is "dark territory"? Does that mean there aren't any signals?
Yep! No signals whatsoever- trains are granted main track authority by a track warrant (piece of paper). The FRA limits passenger trains to 59mph max in dark territory.
For Amtrak, so far as I know (there may be others, someone please say so) the only currently running train on dark territory is the Vermonter north of White River Junction. When it ran the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans was on dark territory between Flomaton AL and Tallahassee FL. In years past (pre Amtrak - 1950's and earlier) there were many passenger trains on unsignalled lines.

Generally unsignalled lines are relatively low in traffic volume, because as noted, your right to occupy a section of track is by a warrant which must be revised by the dispatcher and sent out to every train involved in the chance in permission to occupy a section of track, and entering and exiting a siding entails throwing switches by hand. This can be particularly time consuming in these cabooseless days when you must close the gate behind your train, particlarly if it must be done both going in and going out. That can leave the person throwing the switch with up to a one mile walk to get back to the engine, and that walk being on track in all kinds of weather. To avoid the walk back to set the switch back for the mainline move, when leaving a siding spring switches may be used. A spring switch is one where in a trailing move the train can go through a turnout set for the other track and the switch will reset itself by spring action after the train has gone through it.
 
Illinois Central. Iowa Division.

Then Chicago Central & Pacific then Back to ICG then CN bought it all.
 
Illinois Central. Iowa Division.

Then Chicago Central & Pacific then Back to ICG then CN bought it all.
Thanks Joeker. Didn't realize the ICG went that far west. Would have been nice if the old Rock Island line was used. My great Uncle was a Conductor on the Peoria Rocket.
 
So will this train still be called the Black Hawk if it won't be running over the former Illinois Central yet?
 
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