LSL Michigan Reroute Rumors & Speculation

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I'm late to this party, having been on the road. The following is not quite true:

Amtrak has not purchased the Wolverine route. State of Michigan has. That is a huge difference......

Amtrak owns the ROW between Porter and Kalamazoo. East of Kalamazoo belongs to Michigan.
Yup. I thought I did mention that somewhere in this thread. But thanks for clarifying that again. It makes a huge difference indeed, specially depending on how the relationship between Amtrak and MichDOT evolves...
 
I'll take state of Michigan over a freight company any day of the week. Michigan isn't stopping Amtrak from higher speeds and is less likely to interfere with Amtrak.
Of course. However, the context of that comment was that it was implied that because Amtrak owns the line they could run whatever they want on it. That is not true if someone else owns it. They have to give permission and agree on a charge etc. Of course they could decide that the charge is zero and anything can be run. But I would point to the kerfuffle that is going on among MassDOT, Amtrak and the NEC Commission over what MassDOT must pay for MBTA to use the railroad that they own, apparently because both Amtrak and NEC Commission forgot that it is MassDOT that owns the property and not Amtrak, while setting the rates.
 
I'm late to this party, having been on the road. The following is not quite true:

Amtrak has not purchased the Wolverine route. State of Michigan has. That is a huge difference......

Amtrak owns the ROW between Porter and Kalamazoo. East of Kalamazoo belongs to Michigan.
Technically that's not quite right either. MDOT owns the line from Kalamazoo to about Ypsilanti. Then it's back to the freight lines.

peter
 
I'm late to this party, having been on the road. The following is not quite true:

Amtrak has not purchased the Wolverine route. State of Michigan has. That is a huge difference......

Amtrak owns the ROW between Porter and Kalamazoo. East of Kalamazoo belongs to Michigan.
Technically that's not quite right either. MDOT owns the line from Kalamazoo to about Ypsilanti. Then it's back to the freight lines.

peter
That's also incorrect. MDOT owns the line from Kalamazoo all the way through Dearborn to a particular junction just west of Detroit. (CP-Townline, which is the junction with the Junction Yard Branch).
 
Calling someone a "fluffer-foamer" is rather Childish to say the least.

Anyways, I think this would be a good trial and I think we should see the results of the trial and decide if this looks like a good permanent decision.

I'm always up for "tryouts".
 
Well, in order to make it work, they need to find a way to make decent time from Dearborn to Toledo... I think that's the bottom line. It *should* be possible.
 
From what I've heard from tons of sources including sources that work directly with the Lake Shore, it is pretty much a done deal except a few small details. Dearborn to Toledo will still be 50mph. Looks like it'll add on about 3 hrs to the trip between Toledo and Chicago.
 
From what I've heard from tons of sources including sources that work directly with the Lake Shore, it is pretty much a done deal except a few small details. Dearborn to Toledo will still be 50mph. Looks like it'll add on about 3 hrs to the trip between Toledo and Chicago.
Thanks! That is consistent with the back of the envelope calculation that I had posted earlier in this thread.
 
If it's true, RIP western connections if they don't shove the schedule ahead on the east end.
Yep. They will also need to shove the departure from Chicago a couple of hours earlier to ensure that the Boston section gets to its destination earlier than some ungodly hour in the middle of the night.
 
From what I've heard from tons of sources including sources that work directly with the Lake Shore, it is pretty much a done deal except a few small details. Dearborn to Toledo will still be 50mph. Looks like it'll add on about 3 hrs to the trip between Toledo and Chicago.
I think being able to take a roomette either way from Metro Detroit to Chicago (and vice versa) might create a supplementary market for this train. Along the obvious play to give these folks (Metro Detroit) a one-seat ride to the East Coast.
 
From what I've heard from tons of sources including sources that work directly with the Lake Shore, it is pretty much a done deal except a few small details. Dearborn to Toledo will still be 50mph. Looks like it'll add on about 3 hrs to the trip between Toledo and Chicago.
In this case, the Junction Yard Track becomes the low-hanging fruit. 50 mph for most of the distance from Dearborn to Toledo is actually perfectly respectable, but 10 mph for 3 miles isn't, and takes 18 minutes. Getting that up from 10 mph to 30 mph would cut *12 minutes* off the trip time, and should be relatively inexpensive.

I should certainly hope that this is associated with the "schedule flip" planned way back in the PIP. An earlier depature from Chicago eastbound would be a real improvement, and an earlier departure from upstate NY westbound would also be appreciated. (If they're doing it with the same originating departure times, they're crazy; those are bad depature times, and the opportunity should be taken to change them.)
 
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The main reason for this test is pretty much that Michigan wants a Long Distance Train, and that's pretty much the only reason. Oh. And money.
 
ASM Data (8/1/15-7/31/16):

SWC 4 into CHI

6+ hrs late (9:15pm arrival): 8

5+ hrs late (8:15pm arrival): 12

4.5+ hrs late (7:45pm arrival): 13

4+ hrs late (7:15pm arrival): 20

CZ 6 into CHI

6.5+ hrs late (9:20pm arrival): 9

5.5+ hrs late (8:20pm arrival): 13

5+ hrs late (7:50pm arrival): 15

4.5+ hrs late (7:20pm arrival): 21

I'd probably want to have at least one of CL/LSL leave 8pm or later as there is a big gap between 7:15-7:20pm and 7:45-7:50pm for both trains.
 
On a semi-related note: I had heard (from some not so known sources to me) some talk of switching the Capitol Limited to a single level train and possibly dropping off a sleeper and possibly a cafe at Pittsburgh.
 
On a semi-related note: I had heard (from some not so known sources to me) some talk of switching the Capitol Limited to a single level train and possibly dropping off a sleeper and possibly a cafe at Pittsburgh.
That would be implementation of the CL PIP. The original plan was for the CL to pick up two Coaches, a Amfleet II Dinette and at least one Sleeper from the Pennsy at PGH. Frankly picking up just a Coach or two as a start while we wait for Sleepers even would be a good start.
 
On a semi-related note: I had heard (from some not so known sources to me) some talk of switching the Capitol Limited to a single level train and possibly dropping off a sleeper and possibly a cafe at Pittsburgh.
That idea has been around for years. All it requires (except for the new sleepers) is a switch at the Pittsburgh station, which must be the toughest engineering job of all times since it has never advanced from the proposal stage.
 
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