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I rode the National Limited after Amtrak took over. The train was sort of an after thought, no real lounge or dinner, the rails were in bad shape. I understood that is why they quit running it, poor maintenance killed it. And yet on the last trip I had on it they were so crowded the conductor gave us a bedroom to sit in due to lack of coach seats.
The National Limited was actually what was The Spirit of St Louis inherited in toto by Amtrak. It was renamed the National Limited in July of 71. It was part of the original system crafted by the Railpax incorporators. Its extension to Kansas City was also dictated by the original plan. It fell victim to the Carter cuts in 1979. Poor track was one of the primary reasons for the fall in ridership that caused it to fail to meet the farebox recovery test used for the Carter cuts, along with the Floridian and the James Whitcomb Riley.
 
Three routes that I think would make sense would be reviving the North Coast Limited, parts of which are under some sort of planning. Having a through train from Chicago to Seattle/Portland is not a huge ask.

You mean like the Empire Builder?

The second one is the Desert Wind. If Amtrak absolutely can’t live without another LA/Chicago train, I think having a section break off this train in Utah is a better candidate than just having the old Desert Wind back.

Absolutely. SLC-LAX via Vegas off the CZ.
 
You mean like the Empire Builder?



Absolutely. SLC-LAX via Vegas off the CZ.

The North Coast Limited ran the Northern Pacific route, so not the Empire Builder. The Empire Builder doesn’t run where most the people live.

Los Angeles to Chicago already has plenty of service, (at least by Amtrak standards) there is not really a reason to add a new route to this. Amtrak needs to get over it’s obsession with routing every long distance train through Chicago or New York.
 
My wish list:
  1. Texas Chief/Lone Star. I've never yet heard a really good reason as to why this train was cut in the first place.
  2. Broadway Limited. It just makes sense.
  3. Crescent Star. Section off of the Crescent providing through service FTW-DAL-SHV-JAN-MEI-BHM-ATL-WAS-NYP. Bonus points if you can tweak the schedule to permit connections from/to the CONO in Jackson. Double bonus points if you extend the New Orleans leg through Houston to San Antonio, making connections with a through Texas Eagle.
  4. A revived International on the Blue Water route connecting Chicago with Toronto. Bonus points if you can scrounge up a real diner for an all-day train. If Amtrak and VIA had promoted this one while it was still alive it might just still be around...most residents didn't even know it was there.
  5. Extend the Pere Marquette through Grand Rapids to Detroit. Connect in East Lansing with the Blue Water/International.
  6. Sunset East/CONO Extension/Gulf Wind...this is a gap which NEEDS to be closed!
  7. A completely separate Pioneer/Desert Wind leaving Chicago an hour or two after the California Zephyr, taking the faster Overland Route across Nebraska and Wyoming, and making connections from the Desert Wind section to the CZ in Salt Lake City.
That gives enough to chew on for the present, I think...except that I'd also like to see rail car manufacturing revived by placing modest orders every year instead of "one big order" followed by forty years of bupkis....
 
Whoa, I didn't know Indy to St. Louis was a thing in the Amtrak era! Is the Pittsburg - Columbus route abandoned? Pitts-Columbus-Indy seems like a corridor to me.

Honestly that would be a good corridor but here is the status of the lines.

Pittsburgh-Rennerdale, PA. Part of this is the Pittsburgh Light Rail system over the Panhandle Bridge, the rest is an active NS Branch Line.

Rennerdale, PA to Wierton, PA is abandoned and has been turned into a trail.

Wierton, PA to Jewett, OH is the Columbus, & Ohio River Railroad a G&W property with NS trackage rights.

Jewett, OH to Bowerston, OH the Wheeling & Lake Erie (Independent), and the Columbus, & Ohio River Railroad share the right of way with trackage rights to both CSX and NS as well.

Bowerston, OH to Columbus, OH is the Columbus, & Ohio River Railroad with NS trackage rights.

Columbus, OH to London, OH is a Norfolk Southern main line.

London, OH to Dayton, OH (Eastern Hills) is completely abandoned and turned into a trail.

Dayton, OH (Eastern Hills) to Dayton, OH (Union Station) is a Norfolk Southern spur but it doesn't appear to have any real traffic on it. At least the rail is still in place.

Dayton, OH (Union Station) to Dayton, OH (Greenwich Village) is an active CSX Branch Line that is actually relatively maintained.

Dayton, OH (Greenwich Village) to Richmond, IN (Elks Road) is completely abandoned and bits around Trottwood have been turned into a trail. Fun fact the B&O actually took over operations on part of this at one point to service one customer but once that ended they too abandoned the line.

Richmond, IN (Elks Road) to Richmond, IN (Sheridan St) is an active NS Main line between Cincinnati, OH and Chicago, IL via a hodgepodge of fallen flags. The old Pennsylvania Railroad Station still stands however.

Richmond, IN (Sheridan St) to Richmond, IN (13th St) is an active NS spur.

Richmond, IN (13th St) to Indianapolis, IN (Pleasant Run Creek) is completely abandoned. Just east of the connection at Pleasant Run with the B&O the Pennsylvania Freight bypass to Hawthorne Yard diverges off. Hawthorne Yard is still active.

Indianapolis, IN (Pleasant Run Creek) to Indianapolis, IN (Union Station) is on the Ex Baltimore & Ohio that the Cardinal currently uses into town. The freight line is abandoned from the east end of Hawthorne Yard but is active from Hawthorne Yard to the Beltline Junction that freights took to avoid downtown and Union Station.

Indianapolis, IN (Union Station) to Indianapolis, IN (airport) is an active CSX Line that also sees the Cardinal. However trains use the active New York Central bridge over the parallel Pennsylvania Railroad one over the White River.

Indianapolis, IN (Airport) to Terre Haute, IN is completely abandoned.

Terre Haute, IN to St. Louis, MO is an active CSX Main Line that runs from Cleveland, OH to St. Louis, MO. It crosses the EX Illinois Central and CONO route at Effingham, IL.

So basically what happened to this line and the New York Central from Indianapolis, IN to St. Louis, MO the Penn Central and Conrail chose to keep the better of the two routes to be their mainline and abandoned the other as the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central closely paralleled each other on this section. So the New York Central was kept from Indianapolis, IN to Terre Haute, IN while the Pennsylvania was kept on into St. Louis. Now parts of the New York Central line are still in existence actually but it took a significantly longer route via Mattoon, IL.

That is what also happened between Dayton and Columbus as well the two railroads were fairly close so the better of the two routes was chosen and the Pennsylvania was chosen from Columbus to London, where it transfers to the New York Central on to Dayton via Springfield.

Now just because long sections are abandoned doesn't mean this isn't possible, I think it's still quite doable.

-The Wheeling & Lake Erie an independent shortline owns the former alphabet soup route from Pittsburgh, PA to Bowerston, OH where you can get on the Columbus & Ohio River Railroad without need for any additional infrastructure.

-From Columbus to Dayton you get to take the New York Central routing into Springfield which is a far larger city than Xenia so again you are benefiting on this new routing and it's a shorter routing.

-From Dayton to Indianapolis you are going to have to go out of the way but you pick up Cincinnati, OH which if you ask me is a good trade off. I would route it down the EX New York Central NS main line to Cincinnati Union Station. If the states of Ohio and Indiana were serious about improving travel times they could take over the EX New York Central Line from the Indiana & Ohio (another G&W Line) and CSX between Cincinnati and Indianapolis there is only a brief area where the track is in place that doesn't see traffic between Greensburg and Shelbyville.

-Indianapolis to St. Louis: You would use the EX New York Central from Indianapolis Union Station to Terre Haute. And the Pennsylvania on into St. Louis.

So it is doable it just needs some work done to it.

When I say the Eastern Midwest has a lot of potential I really mean it. The amount of potential routes is insane.

You could easily do corridor trains from Cleveland to Indianapolis and St. Louis, Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Indianapolis and St. Louis, and so many other points. It all depends how you want to route things you can really make an interconnected network of regional rail on par with some European countries.
 
My wish list would include reviving the National Ltd as there is no direct route to St Louis and Kansas City from the Eastern USA, the Broadway Ltd through central Ohio, In and CHI ( track is still all there in good shape,) and the route of the former Olympian Hiawatha where most of the ROW still exists through MT, ID and WA or the North Coast Ltd that would serve the Southern end of the states that the Empire Builder crosses. That route also went through over the former Rio Grande Tennessee pass and didn't rely on the overcrowded single track Moffet tunnel line. The Tennessee pass line tracks are still in place and last I read a short line wants to put the line back in service. They would probably jump at the opportunity for extra revenue if Amtrak wanted to use it.
My final request would be restoring the Amtrak Floridian for direct CHI-ORL service.
 
My wish list:

1) Yakima in eastern WA and all the cities in southern MT (or most, Helena & Butte are hard to get on one line), either as part of an alternate LD or as corridors in themselves. Could connect to the EB at Fargo or run through South Dakota. I think having all 48 have some Amtrak service is a legit political concern. As much as I admire the Milwaukie Road's engineering in both the Cascades and Rockies, using existing track is probably more realistic than putting new track on old ROW that's been converted to hiking trails. And they kind of wandered all over MT while missing bigger cities. North Coast Hiawatha but not exactly. If eastern WA is separate service from southern MT, it could go thru Pasco to Walla Walla whose vineyards have made it a destination.
2) Portland to Boise & beyond (Pioneer but not exactly), not only has Boise grown but so have the little towns in OR on this route and stations still exist. Just to Boise would be OK, all the way to Ogden via Pocatello would be better, al the way to Cheyenne (to hook up with the new corridor service there) would be best. Since UTA now connects Ogden and Salt Lake (1 block and within sight of the Amtrak stops), there's no need to run this train all the way down to Salt Lake.
3) The Phoebe Snow thru Scranton to Buffalo. Would probably take a little rerouting, but it could go right to the NHL rink. I think Buffalo's Central Terminal is beautiful and have fond memories of it as a thriving railroad station, but it's not convenient for anything other than the Lakeshore, and that only because the alternatives are worse for various reasons.
4) Some way to go east to west that doesn't involve Chicago, thru St. Louis, Memphis, KC, whatever. I'm sure there are plenty here who know the possibilities better than I.
5) Chicago to Fla via Atlanta & Nashville.
6) Run the Cascades all the way down to Medford or Ashland, OR. Elizabethan drama railroad.

Less extreme price differentials would be nice too. I don't think you have to gouge folks quite so hard to incentivize off peak travel and making your reservations early. Former passenger routes are a good starting point for thinking about possible new passenger service, but that's all - the available trackage and the demographics to be served have both changed so much that Amtrak should not wed itself to historic routes that may not make sense now.
 
We all love fantasy rail route maps, but for my wishlist I decided it would be much more justifiable to be systematic and data-driven in some fashion. So I figured, go down the list of largest metropolitan areas, from top down, and figure out who really ought to have more service than they do now, by connecting them to bigger cities and smaller neighboring cities.

Well, the first three are NY, LA, and Chicago. So far so good: it tells us the importance of the trains from NY-Chicago (double the frequency of the LSL; reinstitute the Broadway Limited; make the Cardinal daily) and LA-Chicago (protect the SW Chief).

Next are Dallas and Houston. So, support Texas Central in their HSR plan which links up with Amtrak at Dallas. Also make Houston-New Orleans and Houston-San Antonio daily. Also restore Dallas eastward service to Jackson MI (there is an active proposal), and improve the local & commuter rail in both cities.

#6 is DC. It has reasonable levels of service, existing and planned -- possibly because Congress is there.

#7: Miami. Move Amtrak to a multimodal station, either the airport or Brightline's station or both. Support Brightline to Tampa.

#8: Philadelphia. Restore service to Reading and Allentown; double frequency to Pittsburgh; add direct service to Chicago (Broadway Limited).

#9: Atlanta. New central station. Service to Macon and Savannah and Florida. More frequent service to the north along the Crescent route to Charlotte.

#10. Phoenix. Return Amtrak to Phoenix. Make the Sunset Limited route daily. Add frequent Phoenix-Tucson service. Perhaps add Phoenix-north service, possibly to Williams for the Grand Canyon.

#11. Boston. Add service to Concord. Add more service to Albany. Build the North-South Rail Link. Convert commuter rail to all-day regional rail (happening!!!) Other than that, doing pretty well.

#12. San Francisco. Add a Second Transbay Tunnel, standard gauge, and run Caltrain through it onto the Capitol Corridor (with a new bridge and tunnels in the East Bay) to Sacramento. Finish California HSR on the original "single line" route which runs SF-Sacramento-Central Valley-LA, which was originally rejected solely because they didn't want to build a Second Transbay Tunnel, which they are currently talking about building anyway for other reasons.

#14. Detroit. Separate the Pontiac Commuter Route from the route to Chicago. Connect to Toledo to connect to New York, Philadelphia, and DC. Connect to Toronto.

#15. Seattle. Finish the HSR plans to Vancouver Canada (mostly removing extensive curves in BC). Build a new route north of the city to avoid flooding. Finish the HSR plans to Portland OR.

#16. Minneapolis. Second frequency to Chicago. Reroute it via new tracks to Madison (as in previous HSR plan). Finish commuter rail to St. Cloud. Build passenger rail to Northfield. Build passenger rail to Duluth.

#17. San Diego. Finish improvement plans for LOSSAN to LA. Build the Trolley to the San Diego Zoo.

#18. Tampa. Support Brightline to Orlando/Miami. Support better service to Tampa. Establish local urban or commuter rail (requires getting Republicans removed from the state government, they are obstructing it).

#19. Denver. Second frequency to Chicago. Second frequency to Salt Lake City, perhaps via Wyoming. Fast rail to Fort Collins (via Boulder) and Pueblo (via Colorado Springs).

#20. St Louis. More of its urban light rail system. More frequencies to KC. More and faster frequencies to Chicago. Other routes?

....I could go on down the list. At #30 we reach Cincinnati (daily Cardinal, "3C" line) and at #32 Columbus ("3C" line), and at #33 Indianapolis (daily Cardinal), and at #34, Cleveland (second frequency on LSL, running in the daytime through Cleveland, and "3C" line, and Toledo-Detroit connection).

If you do this exercise, you'll notice the same most-needed routes popping up repeatedly. Broadway Limited NY-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh-Cleveland-(Chicago); Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland-(NY); Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati; daily Cardinal; Brightline's route to Tampa. If you keep going down the list of cities, they show up again.

At #56 we reach Honolulu (finish HART -- that's about all you can do there!)

At #65 we get to McAllen, TX, which is ignored by most English-speaking US railfans, and shouldn't be. Badly needs to be connected to the rest of the US passenger rail network. As you continue down the list, you also find Brownsville and Corpus Christi, both larger than Reading, PA (which also should have service), and both of which need to be reconnected to the US passenger rail network. Texas has a lot of lack of rail, and the southern parts even more so.
 
We all love fantasy rail route maps, but for my wishlist I decided it would be much more justifiable to be systematic and data-driven in some fashion. So I figured, go down the list of largest metropolitan areas, from top down, and figure out who really ought to have more service than they do now, by connecting them to bigger cities and smaller neighboring cities.

Well, the first three are NY, LA, and Chicago. So far so good: it tells us the importance of the trains from NY-Chicago (double the frequency of the LSL; reinstitute the Broadway Limited; make the Cardinal daily) and LA-Chicago (protect the SW Chief).

Next are Dallas and Houston. So, support Texas Central in their HSR plan which links up with Amtrak at Dallas. Also make Houston-New Orleans and Houston-San Antonio daily. Also restore Dallas eastward service to Jackson MI (there is an active proposal), and improve the local & commuter rail in both cities.

#6 is DC. It has reasonable levels of service, existing and planned -- possibly because Congress is there.

#7: Miami. Move Amtrak to a multimodal station, either the airport or Brightline's station or both. Support Brightline to Tampa.

#8: Philadelphia. Restore service to Reading and Allentown; double frequency to Pittsburgh; add direct service to Chicago (Broadway Limited).

#9: Atlanta. New central station. Service to Macon and Savannah and Florida. More frequent service to the north along the Crescent route to Charlotte.

#10. Phoenix. Return Amtrak to Phoenix. Make the Sunset Limited route daily. Add frequent Phoenix-Tucson service. Perhaps add Phoenix-north service, possibly to Williams for the Grand Canyon.

#11. Boston. Add service to Concord. Add more service to Albany. Build the North-South Rail Link. Convert commuter rail to all-day regional rail (happening!!!) Other than that, doing pretty well.

#12. San Francisco. Add a Second Transbay Tunnel, standard gauge, and run Caltrain through it onto the Capitol Corridor (with a new bridge and tunnels in the East Bay) to Sacramento. Finish California HSR on the original "single line" route which runs SF-Sacramento-Central Valley-LA, which was originally rejected solely because they didn't want to build a Second Transbay Tunnel, which they are currently talking about building anyway for other reasons.

#14. Detroit. Separate the Pontiac Commuter Route from the route to Chicago. Connect to Toledo to connect to New York, Philadelphia, and DC. Connect to Toronto.

#15. Seattle. Finish the HSR plans to Vancouver Canada (mostly removing extensive curves in BC). Build a new route north of the city to avoid flooding. Finish the HSR plans to Portland OR.

#16. Minneapolis. Second frequency to Chicago. Reroute it via new tracks to Madison (as in previous HSR plan). Finish commuter rail to St. Cloud. Build passenger rail to Northfield. Build passenger rail to Duluth.

#17. San Diego. Finish improvement plans for LOSSAN to LA. Build the Trolley to the San Diego Zoo.

#18. Tampa. Support Brightline to Orlando/Miami. Support better service to Tampa. Establish local urban or commuter rail (requires getting Republicans removed from the state government, they are obstructing it).

#19. Denver. Second frequency to Chicago. Second frequency to Salt Lake City, perhaps via Wyoming. Fast rail to Fort Collins (via Boulder) and Pueblo (via Colorado Springs).

#20. St Louis. More of its urban light rail system. More frequencies to KC. More and faster frequencies to Chicago. Other routes?

....I could go on down the list. At #30 we reach Cincinnati (daily Cardinal, "3C" line) and at #32 Columbus ("3C" line), and at #33 Indianapolis (daily Cardinal), and at #34, Cleveland (second frequency on LSL, running in the daytime through Cleveland, and "3C" line, and Toledo-Detroit connection).

If you do this exercise, you'll notice the same most-needed routes popping up repeatedly. Broadway Limited NY-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh-Cleveland-(Chicago); Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland-(NY); Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati; daily Cardinal; Brightline's route to Tampa. If you keep going down the list of cities, they show up again.

At #56 we reach Honolulu (finish HART -- that's about all you can do there!)

At #65 we get to McAllen, TX, which is ignored by most English-speaking US railfans, and shouldn't be. Badly needs to be connected to the rest of the US passenger rail network. As you continue down the list, you also find Brownsville and Corpus Christi, both larger than Reading, PA (which also should have service), and both of which need to be reconnected to the US passenger rail network. Texas has a lot of lack of rail, and the southern parts even more so.
Great plan, but I feel as if you could have been more adventurous for LA. Corridor service to Los Vegas and Phoenix, or at the very least the Coachella Valley. Expanding service between LA and San Diego, and try to beef it up as much as possible, the line is already pretty straight. And increase service north of LA. Add service to the Bay Area and/or Sacramento.
 
My wish list:

1) Yakima in eastern WA and all the cities in southern MT (or most, Helena & Butte are hard to get on one line), either as part of an alternate LD or as corridors in themselves. Could connect to the EB at Fargo or run through South Dakota. I think having all 48 have some Amtrak service is a legit political concern. As much as I admire the Milwaukie Road's engineering in both the Cascades and Rockies, using existing track is probably more realistic than putting new track on old ROW that's been converted to hiking trails. And they kind of wandered all over MT while missing bigger cities. North Coast Hiawatha but not exactly. If eastern WA is separate service from southern MT, it could go thru Pasco to Walla Walla whose vineyards have made it a destination.
2) Portland to Boise & beyond (Pioneer but not exactly), not only has Boise grown but so have the little towns in OR on this route and stations still exist. Just to Boise would be OK, all the way to Ogden via Pocatello would be better, al the way to Cheyenne (to hook up with the new corridor service there) would be best. Since UTA now connects Ogden and Salt Lake (1 block and within sight of the Amtrak stops), there's no need to run this train all the way down to Salt Lake.
3) The Phoebe Snow thru Scranton to Buffalo. Would probably take a little rerouting, but it could go right to the NHL rink. I think Buffalo's Central Terminal is beautiful and have fond memories of it as a thriving railroad station, but it's not convenient for anything other than the Lakeshore, and that only because the alternatives are worse for various reasons.
4) Some way to go east to west that doesn't involve Chicago, thru St. Louis, Memphis, KC, whatever. I'm sure there are plenty here who know the possibilities better than I.
5) Chicago to Fla via Atlanta & Nashville.
6) Run the Cascades all the way down to Medford or Ashland, OR. Elizabethan drama railroad.

Less extreme price differentials would be nice too. I don't think you have to gouge folks quite so hard to incentivize off peak travel and making your reservations early. Former passenger routes are a good starting point for thinking about possible new passenger service, but that's all - the available trackage and the demographics to be served have both changed so much that Amtrak should not wed itself to historic routes that may not make sense now.
The UTA "connection" in Ogden often comes up. I've checked it out and it's a long walk between the old and new stations. UTA can't hold trains for connections on their single-track line and many of the potential Pioneer connections are at times of "day" when there are no UTA trains. The Pioneer or its successor needs to go into SLC.
 
The UTA "connection" in Ogden often comes up. I've checked it out and it's a long walk between the old and new stations. UTA can't hold trains for connections on their single-track line and many of the potential Pioneer connections are at times of "day" when there are no UTA trains. The Pioneer or its successor needs to go into SLC.
Oh well, it was a thought. Has the most recent round of legislation gotten rid of the 750 mile limit on new routes, or does that not apply to revivals?
 
Some of these are straight out of fantasyland. Much as I would like to see a resurrection of the Georgian, and a Chicago - Atlanta via Evansville, Nashville, and Chattanooga day train which we could call the Dixie Flyer, such is not practical given the realities of the current rail alignment and traffic. The overall rail distance was and is 731 miles. Recall that the best ever we own the railroad time Nashville-Atlanta was 6 hours, and compare that with the current driving time of 4 hours along with a realistic schedule for a train being somewhere 7 hours plus. Then include 3 1/2 hours for the 158 miles Nashville to Evansville, again, a best ever time. The old C&EI was around 6 hours for their 287 miles. I think the best overall end to end time was around 16 1/2 to 17 hours. Probably 19 to 20 would be your best possible today without major work, then compare that with driving time of 10 hours, with a road distance somewhere around 700 miles, maybe a few less.
 
We all love fantasy rail route maps, but for my wishlist I decided it would be much more justifiable to be systematic and data-driven in some fashion. So I figured, go down the list of largest metropolitan areas, from top down, and figure out who really ought to have more service than they do now, by connecting them to bigger cities and smaller neighboring cities.
I agree that metropolitan area sizes ought to be taken into account in any reimagining of the national passenger rail map. My dream criteria would be that a truly national system would serve the top 50 metros and it would serve the top 25 metros with arrivals and departures between 7 am and 11:30 pm, and that it would be possible to travel between any two of those top metros on a reasonably direct route (i.e., no going south when your final destination is north) with no overnight layovers.
 
Some of these are straight out of fantasyland. Much as I would like to see a resurrection of the Georgian, and a Chicago - Atlanta via Evansville, Nashville, and Chattanooga day train which we could call the Dixie Flyer, such is not practical given the realities of the current rail alignment and traffic. The overall rail distance was and is 731 miles. Recall that the best ever we own the railroad time Nashville-Atlanta was 6 hours, and compare that with the current driving time of 4 hours along with a realistic schedule for a train being somewhere 7 hours plus. Then include 3 1/2 hours for the 158 miles Nashville to Evansville, again, a best ever time. The old C&EI was around 6 hours for their 287 miles. I think the best overall end to end time was around 16 1/2 to 17 hours. Probably 19 to 20 would be your best possible today without major work, then compare that with driving time of 10 hours, with a road distance somewhere around 700 miles, maybe a few less.
No way the word Dixie would get used in any name now.
 
Three routes that I think would make sense would be reviving the North Coast Limited, parts of which are under some sort of planning. Having a through train from Chicago to Seattle/Portland is not a huge ask. The second one is the Desert Wind. The change I would make being that it run north to Butte to connect with the North Coast instead of being another Chicago train. Doing this would bring service back to Ogden and Eastern Idaho. That part of Idaho lost service when Amtrak was created, with its proximity to Yellowstone, having service expanded there makes some sense. I know there is a bus out of Salt Lake, but people like trains better. The last one is more a combination of two routes. Which is restoring Chicago to Omaha service over the old Rock Island route since it’s remnants serve Des Moines and have a long distance train run along the old UP City lines. If Amtrak absolutely can’t live without another LA/Chicago train, I think having a section break off this train in Utah is a better candidate than just having the old Desert Wind back. There are more routes that should come back, but these are the ones that I think have the best cases and haven’t been mentioned.


How about a revival of the Los Angeles Limited:

https://is.gd/9tEPWq
Just kidding. I don't think it would work. However, it would open up stations in Wyoming, Southern Idaho, and get into Salt Lake City at reasonable times. Add on the "Butte Special", Salt Lake City to Butte. It would allow a stop in Idaho Falls with a possible shuttle bus link to Yellowstone.
 
This is really O.T. but I have a question for you railfans of yesteryear.

I was in the USN in the early 1970's. Stationed out of Norfolk, Va.

Was there anyway I could have railed to Northern Wisconsin (my folks lived there) via train?

If so..what trains would I have had to take?
 
I was in the USN in the early 1970's. Stationed out of Norfolk, Va.

Was there anyway I could have railed to Northern Wisconsin (my folks lived there) via train?

If so..what trains would I have had to take?
You could get from Norfolk to Chicago on the George Washington (Norfolk to Newport News was actually on a connecting bus), but there were no passenger trains into northern Wisconsin by the early 1970s. The closest you could get is one of the Wisconsin stations on the route of the Empire Builder: Milwaukee, Columbus, Portage, Wisconsin Dells, Tomah, or La Crosse.
 
There was connecting bus service operated from the Milwaukee Amtrak station by Wisconsin-Michigan Coaches to Green Bay. From there, they had connections for Antigo, Crandon, Eau Claire, Hurley, Ironwood, Iron Mountain, Iron River, Rhinelander, Shawano, Sturgeon Bay, Wausau, Wittenberg, Door County, "and other northern points." Through ticketing was introduced in '73 or '74.
 
do we have a list of services planned from mckinsey and co before they were asked to cut it even farther?
In attempting to study and gather info for my own edification in connection with your question I found this rather well written and informative article about McKinsey's relationship with Amtrak, how it came about and what came out of it, published of all places at the website of Enotrans! Here is the link:

https://www.enotrans.org/article/amtrak-at-50-how-mckinsey-designed-a-national-railroad/
 
In attempting to study and gather info for my own edification in connection with your question I found this rather well written and informative article about McKinsey's relationship with Amtrak, how it came about and what came out of it, published of all places at the website of Enotrans! Here is the link:

https://www.enotrans.org/article/amtrak-at-50-how-mckinsey-designed-a-national-railroad/
I was out of the country during the transition but studied it as best as I could after I started at ODOT. As the map in the article shows, they missed the Villard Junction route from Pasco to Portland via the UP. Had they run a PDX section of the Empire Builder from the beginning at Pasco via The Dalles, it is likely that support for what became the Pioneer would have been seriously undercut.

The article missed one colorful moment in that struggle. Catherine May got on the phone with Senator Warren Magnuson ("Maggie! He can do more for Washington") to discuss the route issues. He wondered why they couldn't compromise by running one way via Pasco and one way via Wenatchee. She said that she had asked about that and was told that there would be some technical problems. And, of course, she was from Yakima.
 
In attempting to study and gather info for my own edification in connection with your question I found this rather well written and informative article about McKinsey's relationship with Amtrak, how it came about and what came out of it, published of all places at the website of Enotrans! Here is the link:

https://www.enotrans.org/article/amtrak-at-50-how-mckinsey-designed-a-national-railroad/
Great find! Thanks for posting!
It contained this link...
https://www.enotrans.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Railpax-Incorporators-meetings.pdf
I haven't read the whole thing, but one item grabbed my attention from the January 27 meeting minutes:

". American Airlines personnel - headed by Mr. George Spater, President - proposed a 3-project effort to develop short- and longer term approaches to handling reservations. In addition, they proposed one demonstration project on food service."

I was aware of AA's eventual development of Amtrak's reservation system thru their (then) SABRE subsidiary, but I never heard they proposed developing some kind of food service, perhaps thru their (then) Sky Chef's subsidiary.
Imagine what that could have resulted in...
Apparently, the Board did not seem interested in that...
 
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