Proposed Timetable Between Chicago and Iowa City via Quad Cities

[slh14]

http://www.iowadot.gov/amtrakstudy/Iowa%20Feasibility%20Study%20Amtrak%20PowerPoint.pdf

Scroll down to the end of the document to find the schedule.

I'm disappointed in the times. I'm interested in taking the train to Moline and would be coming in on the City of New Orleans which arrives in Chicago at 9 am. Thirty minutes isn't much of a window to catch the connection. And waiting around until 6:30 to catch the evening train isn't an attractive option at all. The return trip is worse. The morning train would arrive in Chicago at noon, which means I'd have an 8-hour layover. Ugh. The evening train wouldn't arrive until 10 pm, two hours after the City of New Orleans departs Chicago. I'm hoping there will be some adjustments to this schedule before the trains are projected to start running in 2015. It wouldn't be a whole lot of good to me the way it is currently proposed. 8(

If so, I will have to continue catching the California Zephyr to Burlington, which is about an hour-and-a-half away from my final destination of Muscatine. Whereas Moline is just 30 minutes.

 

[MattW]

Not much revision they can do to it. If they push back the morning Westbound much, you risk not having enough time to turn the train and still run it on a schedule that puts it into Chicago at a reasonable time.

 

[MikefromCrete]

IDOT schedules its trains for the convenience of regional travelers. Bumping the outbound morning train to say, 10:30 a.m. would probably mean an even later arrival back in Chicago. The morning inbound and evening outbound trains at Chicago are designed for business people and others intending to spend a day in Chicago. You also have to consider scheduling on the BNSF portion of the route with other commuter, short and long distance passenger trains, and of course, freights. You probably can't design every regional train to connect with every long distance route.

 

[afigg]

Not much revision they can do to it. If they push back the morning Westbound much, you risk not having enough time to turn the train and still run it on a schedule that puts it into Chicago at a reasonable time.

Keep in mind that the service won't be going to Iowa City as Gov. Branford and the Iowa House have continued to block state match funding for the Iowa portion of the HSIPR grant. So the turnaround would be at Moline which allows for a different schedule. Besides, that is a 5 year old presentation of a possible schedule. Illinois and Amtrak have several more years to trade off good departure/arrival times for Chicago area and Moline residents against those on connecting trains in Chicago.

Setting a schedule for circa 2 hour connections is difficult for one a day or 2 daily frequency train services. Gets easier with corridor services with 4-5 trains a day or more. Even 3 trains a day is better because then a mid-day departure train can provide connections from mid-morning arrivals.

Looking at the current schedule, a 9:30 AM departure to Moline would allow connections from only the Hiawatha. Look at the CHI arrival times for the other trains: Capitol Limited: 8:45 AM CT, CONO: 9:00 AM CT, LSL: 9:45 AM CT, Lincoln Service #300: 10:00 AM CT, Pere Marquette: 10:38 AM CT, Wolverine #351: 10:47 AM CT.

There are reasons that Amtrak may select a later departure for the morning train to Moline. The Carl Sandburg #381 which covers much of the route departs CHI at 7:35 AM CT. A circa 10:30 or 11 AM departure to Moline would provide more flexible coverage to the shared stops.

The CHI arrival times of the first Lincoln service and Wolverine trains of the day also show the benefit of taking an hour or more off of their current trip times. Will allow for a very early morning departure from STL and DET that arrives in CHI mid-morning for business travelers and possible connections to other corridor trains without having to wait much of the day in CHI.

 

[Nathanael]

http://www.iowadot.gov/amtrakstudy/Iowa%20Feasibility%20Study%20Amtrak%20PowerPoint.pdf

Unfortunately, as noted by afigg, the Iowa City route is completely unfunded due to the shenaningans of Iowa State government. As a result, when the service starts, it will go only to Moline, and will probably be on a *completely* different schedule.
If Iowa City service is ever funded by a future Iowa legislature, they will undoubtedly redesign the schedule; existing studies will be extremely out of date by then. The current leading proposal is a train all the way to Omaha, with at least six trains a day to Iowa City, and you can find the study for that Iowa DOT's website.

 

[slh14]

Thanks for all the information, folks! It's something I'll continue to monitor.

 

[Anderson]

I'm trying to remember...what did IL opt for in terms of running speeds?

 

[afigg]

I'm trying to remember...what did IL opt for in terms of running speeds?

I have not seen much in the way of news recently on either on the development of the 2 new corridors in IL, but I think the CHI to Moline corridor will be 79 mph max. For the current funding that is.

 

[Anderson]

I think you're right. In fact, I think I know why the operation costs so much vs. that report: IIRC, it was supposed to run up to 5x daily trains, not "just" 2x.

 

[coachseats]

Unfortunately this article in the paper today does not make the situation look too promising:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131020/NEWS09/310210020/McCoy-gives-up-on-train-funds?News

I know financially it might never add up enough to satisfy republicans, but there is a tremendous amount of travel demand from both Des Moines and the Iowa City area to/from Chicago with 6-7 busses daily, 16 flights departing daily from Des Moines to Chicago and 10-12 from Cedar Rapids and about the same from the Quad Cities to Chicago, and a very busy interstate so I think the ridership would be there.

 

[afigg]

Unfortunately this article in the paper today does not make the situation look too promising:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131020/NEWS09/310210020/McCoy-gives-up-on-train-funds?News

I know financially it might never add up enough to satisfy republicans, but there is a tremendous amount of travel demand from both Des Moines and the Iowa City area to/from Chicago with 6-7 busses daily, 16 flights departing daily from Des Moines and 10-12 from both Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities airport, and a very busy interstate so I think the ridership would be there.

Thanks for the link. The grant is FY2010 funding, so it does not have an expiration date like the $8 billion in stimulus grants. But it appears that it might be a better use of the $53 million for the FRA to reallocate it to other projects, maybe CT for the NHV-SPG line, the NEC. Or keep it in the Midwest to make a point to Iowa and use the funds to double track portions of the CHI-STL or CHI-DET corridors to allow increased service frequencies

Taking the funds away from Iowa does not rule out service to Iowa City or Des Moines for all time. The majority of the original grant is being used to extend service in IL to Moline and buy new corridor bi-level cars. So the line and service will be there for future extensions to Iowa City and Des Moines. Just have to wait for a change in the state political leadership to those more favorable to passenger rail. Might happen in 2014 or take a lot longer. Then, if there is a federal HSIPR program of some sort, Iowa can apply again for funding. Once there is service to Moline and the edge of Iowa, the calls for extending the line to Iowa City are likely to grow.

The article provides a useful update on the status of the 2 new corridors: "However, the Illinois DOT is moving forward with plans for a portion of the route, hoping to start service in December 2015, said Illinois DOT spokeswoman Paris Ervin. The Illinois DOT also plans a Chicago-to-Dubuque passenger train with service to at least Rockford by the end of 2015, with the remainder of the corridor planned to be completed in 2016, she said." The delivery of the new bi-level cars is likely a major driving factor in when the new corridor services will start. 2016 looks to be a busy year for Amtrak expansion. (I'm figuring December or end of 2015 starts will slip into 2016).

 

[Nathanael]

I know financially it might never add up enough to satisfy republicans, but there is a tremendous amount of travel demand from both Des Moines and the Iowa City area to/from Chicago with 6-7 busses daily, 16 flights departing daily from Des Moines to Chicago and 10-12 from Cedar Rapids and about the same from the Quad Cities to Chicago, and a very busy interstate so I think the ridership would be there.

I agree; however, I would like to point out that we have more demand from Ithaca, NY to NYC than you have from Des Moines to Chicago, with 13 buses a day (more in peak periods) and some absurd number of planes, not to mention the roads. And we can't get train service either. :-(

 

[Anderson]

Irony embodied would be if IN decided they wanted to do an upgrade on the CHI-IND line and they got the money and used it after IA had been pushing for this train for as long as anyone can remember in one form or another.

 

[afigg]

Irony embodied would be if IN decided they wanted to do an upgrade on the CHI-IND line and they got the money and used it after IA had been pushing for this train for as long as anyone can remember in one form or another.

It would be ironic, but very unlikely. If the FRA re-allocates the FY10 funds, they may be limited to states or corridors that applied for the FY10 grants the first time around or when the Florida & Ohio grants were redistributed. The FY10 grants require a 20% state match, so it has to go to states & projects who can provide the match.
The FRA may also want to reallocate the Iowa grant to projects where the funds can be obligated reasonably quickly, just in case someone in the House adds a line to an appropriations bill in January canceling any non obligated remaining funds from the FY2010 HSIPR program. If the current Iowa political leadership is not going to play, put the money to productive use elsewhere.

 

[coachseats]

Another follow up article from today:

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2013/10/21/branstad-cites-considerable-skepticism-about-iowa-city-train-but-awaits-dot-study-before-deciding-its-fate/article

I would have to say as a citizen of the great state of Iowa that it is kind of frustrating that the Iowa DOT is dragging its feet on the study. I know there is a lot more to making this kind of study than most of us realize, but they have been working on it a loooooong time and still aren't sure if it will be ready by the time the Iowa Legislature convenes in January.