Michigan Services

[lepearso]

I wonder if Amtrak should consider rerouting one of the Wolverine trains to Toledo instead of to Pontiac and bring back the days of the Lake Cities?

Currently, all three Wolverines operate to and from Pontiac and a Thruway Bus connects the Capitol Ltd. and Lake Shore Ltd. to cities in Michigan via Toledo.

Would it not be more practical to send one of the three trains down to Toledo and then rerouted the bus to serve other Michigan cities, like Saginaw and Pontiac?

Seems like they visited this idea a couple years ago.

 

[Superliner Diner]

I think it was considered easier from Amtrak's standpoint to keep all three Wolverine Service trains going to the same endpoint (Pontiac), especially now that the three round trips have all been branded under the same product name. Sure, it would be nice to take a train between Detroit and Toledo than a bus, but then having it meet the Lake Shore Limited, with its unreliable timekeeping, also puts a potential Wolverine train in jeopardy too, possibly fouling the entire service depending on how the trainsets are used.

Also, when Amtrak last served Toledo from the Michigan corridor, they were using the Michigan Central depot in Detroit (an eyesore of a building now being redeveloped into police headquarters). Since service was extended to Pontiac, the relocated Amtrak station is several miles up Woodward Avenue in the New Center district. It would be an operational nightmare to serve both Detroit and Toledo, since the line to Toledo branches off the old MC Depot routing, not the line now used into the New Center station. That means that a train going to Toledo would probably have to bypass Detroit, and that would cause confusion among passengers since Detroit is the largest city on the eastern end of this corridor.

And don't forget, when Amtrak last visited the idea of returning service to Toledo, it was one of the elements of the Network Growth Strategy, which never really took root. Besides one train to Toledo and one remaining to Pontiac, the third train would have cut across Canada and run closed-door over to Buffalo, where it was to become one of the Empire Corridor frequencies to New York City.

 

[amtrakmichigan]

Also, when Amtrak last served Toledo from the Michigan corridor, they were using the Michigan Central depot in Detroit (an eyesore of a building now being redeveloped into police headquarters). Since service was extended to Pontiac, the relocated Amtrak station is several miles up Woodward Avenue in the New Center district. It would be an operational nightmare to serve both Detroit and Toledo, since the line to Toledo branches off the old MC Depot routing, not the line now used into the New Center station. That means that a train going to Toledo would probably have to bypass Detroit, and that would cause confusion among passengers since Detroit is the largest city on the eastern end of this corridor.

Actually Superliner Diner, the Lake Cities served Toledo for a few years without using the old MC depot. Amtrak was using the "mobile home" station on Woodward up to the end of it's service to Toledo. They would "pull" from Chicago into Detroit, then "push" to Toledo on the old Conrail main. The Lake Cities used a cab control coach during this time. My girlfriend (now wife) and I rode next to the engineer in the cab car from Detroit to Toledo on new years eve 1994, to connect with the LSL. The engineers name was Bill Haggie and he past away a few years back.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Also running time was to slow becuase of track speed.