wayman
Engineer
The Empire Builder schedule lists "Columbus WI (Madison)" (CBS) as a stop. But there's no thruway motorcoach connection to Madison, Greyhound doesn't seem to have a Columbus WI stop, and it's 27.9 miles (39 minutes) by car according to Google Maps. Is Amtrak's "(Madison)" just indicating "this is the closest stop geographically to Madison, if you have a car or someone willing to drive 40 minutes each way to pick you up/drop you off", or is there any non-car connection between Columbus and Madison I'm not thinking of?
Basically, this boils down to: if I were in Chicago and wanting to visit relatives in Madison for a few days, would this require significant imposition on them on two separate days if I travel to "(Madison)" via Amtrak, such that renting a car and driving three hours from Chicago to Madison would be far more polite (not to mention flexible)?
At least it looks like a reasonable possibility to visit my aunt in La Crosse via the EB! For CHI-LSE (arriving LSE 19:14), I should have time for dinner on the EB, right? If the eastbound EB for my return is several hours late, will they serve dinner (which they wouldn't serve if the train were on time into Chicago) or is the kitchen unstocked for this eventuality?
(Yes, this is the start of thinking through logistics for a week-long trip to Chicago including some family visits and a couple days of Hiawatha-AGR-rides... )
Basically, this boils down to: if I were in Chicago and wanting to visit relatives in Madison for a few days, would this require significant imposition on them on two separate days if I travel to "(Madison)" via Amtrak, such that renting a car and driving three hours from Chicago to Madison would be far more polite (not to mention flexible)?
At least it looks like a reasonable possibility to visit my aunt in La Crosse via the EB! For CHI-LSE (arriving LSE 19:14), I should have time for dinner on the EB, right? If the eastbound EB for my return is several hours late, will they serve dinner (which they wouldn't serve if the train were on time into Chicago) or is the kitchen unstocked for this eventuality?
(Yes, this is the start of thinking through logistics for a week-long trip to Chicago including some family visits and a couple days of Hiawatha-AGR-rides... )