This is good news. Additional trains give more flexibility for people’s scheduled activities. Also with it being a shorter route there is less chance for long delays to the ocassionaly happen to the Empire Builder. Amtrak should continue to expand this route and make it more like its Chicago to Saint Louis route that has several trains a day and one long distance train on it. Even Canadian Pacific Kansas Southern may be interested if some track improvements could be made that also would help in their freight operations.
I hope they seriously consider a route through Eau Claire and Madison. This would basically follow the former Chicago & Northwestern, now Union Pacific. A train into Madison would put the second largest city in Wisconsin on the Amtrak network. plus restore Madison to Chicago rail service.
@@TranscontinentalRailfan - Madison is the obvious addition; it must be one of the largest U.S. cities without rail passenger service. Unfortunately, the at grade tracks through Madison would severely delay any MSP-CHI service, but a service aimed at connecting Madison to Chicago and St. Paul makes a lot of sense.
@@IndustrialParrot2816 - That's nice. I said "one of the largest." More importantly, there are significant obstacles to adding Columbus and Phoenix to the Amtrak network. Columbus would have to either be a Cincy-Cleveland train, or a revival of the National Limited from Pittsburgh to St. Louis (assuming the tracks still exist). Likewise, its been found that reopening the ex-SP Welton Branch is not cost effective. Arizona is developing its Phoenix-Tucson regional train, which makes a lot more sense. A daily train from Los Angeles to Tucson with bus service from Maricopa to Phoenix seems most viable.
The real trouble with the Empire Builder is its lack of punctuality. Lack of punctuality is why riding it short distances was infeasible. A 2 hour delay is unacceptable for a trip that might only be 1-4 hours. The Borealis doesn't cross half the country to get to St. Paul, and tends to run on time. The Borealis is basically the historical Afternoon Hiawatha to Chicago and the Morning Hiawatha to St. Paul.
Great video and great news conveyed as well. Maybe hopefully this could lead to true highspeed rail between these two destinations and beyond in the years ahead.
If the Borealis keeps setting records for on time performance and passenger growth, I think that the next train to be introduced is Chicago to Green Bay?
That train would also be welcome also but in that case either the train should continue to get to Saint Paul or have it split into two trains at some point so there would still be more service to St. Paul.
Makes sense. Maybe continue one Hiawatha per day north of Milwaukee? Or, if you want to go all-in, two Hiawathas, one of them running Appleton-Oshkosh-Fond du Lac and the other Sheboygan-Manitowoc? I don't even know if there's existing track on both those routes, just spitballing.
@@sturmovik1274There used to be trackage between Sheboygan and Green Bay directly, however today it’s been chopped up with segments of rail missing between Sheboygan and Manitowoc, and Manitowoc to Denmark. Certainly not impossible to rebuild the trackage, but right now the freight railroad does have it’s reasons to keep it severed as it currently is
There is existing track ready to use that the CN runs right now through the Fox River Valley Cities (Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Menasha, Appleton and Kaukauna) to Green Bay @@sturmovik1274
I'm going to say this in this video too, they should make a three tier system, tier 1 should be long distance travel with one station per state, tier 2 should be statewide travel (I know that in some states, the population is smaller than others, so in turn, a multi-state service should be in place, like states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, up in the Midwest, but then there some states the small enough in the northeast that should combine the system with each other too), tier 3 should be citywide transit
Here is a lesson on how to give 3 minutes of information in 8 minutes. Besides the repetitive script, you also get to repeatedly watch irrelevant B-roll. How interesting.
I am so sorry that this video wasted your five minutes, so that you were unable to complete the electrification of the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor, as you had planned.
That's the decision of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks. While it's certainly possible, it wouldn't be cheap, especially where the track hugs the Mississippi River. CP's own traffic on that line isn't enough to justify a second track, or they'd have done it. I'm not against it in principle, but CP would be justified in asking Amtrak/state/federal gov't to cover the costs.
@@mprooveit3588 I wasn't, but it doesn't surprise me. A lot of double- and more track was taken up back then that railroads would like to have back now.
This is great news. -- On a distinct but related note, when I read the comment section of these channels, I find that there is almost no awareness of the Amtrak/State Partnership program. Only 18 states participate and almost no one understands why Amtrak expands in some states and not in others. They think that the decisions are entirely made by Amtrak. -- It would not be wise because of the politics for either Amtrak or the FRA to try to educate the public in this regard. Then whose job, is it? Thomas Jefferson believed in the efficacy of an informed public. What to do in an era where the NYT, WAPO, and NBC are called "fake news" and the public seems to crave disinformation and invective. Can real news like the Borealis ridership exceeding expectations have a chance in this environment?
You may already know this, but for anyone who doesn't, in December 2023 they put out an RFP to replace the entire Superliner fleet. There have been delays, but hopefully improvement is coming.
@@sturmovik1274 The spastic efforts for fleet renewal go back almost a decade. There were a lot of curveballs thrown that, frankly, were self inflicted. Thanks to the Airo order the Superliner replacement initiative should be irrelevant to state supported services. To that end, if Minnesota is truly serious about supporting Borealis service expansion then find some funds to add coaches and cabcars (and maybe locomotives) to the Midwest Venture fleet.
Update: A prominent passenger-rail youtuber says that a contract is expected in late 2025 with deliveries beginning about 2030. They don't give a source.
Maybe people too are realizing that getting there is half the fun, that air travel is too chancy and takes too long to both get to an airport and to board a plane. Then there is getting out of the destination airport.. Whereas with trains, you're always down on earth and the stations in between big cities are small, compared to nearly all airports.. (unless you're wealthy enough to fly on private jets !)..Or maybe it's just that I've never liked planes and have always loved trains,..real and miniature...
Thrilled to see the success of this train! Absolutely, there needs to be a 2nd round trip, and a third and fourth, etc.!!
Perhaps even 7 or 8 trains a day
Great video, and glad to hear the service is going well.
I think an overnight train would be an excellent idea. Also service to and from Fargo,ND.
Madison to St. Paul via Eau Claire? Yes, please!
CPKC can support it. If they put the double track back in. Also, you could have some passing sidings on double track as well.
If you build it, they will come.
This is good news. Additional trains give more flexibility for people’s scheduled activities. Also with it being a shorter route there is less chance for long delays to the ocassionaly happen to the Empire Builder. Amtrak should continue to expand this route and make it more like its Chicago to Saint Louis route that has several trains a day and one long distance train on it. Even Canadian Pacific Kansas Southern may be interested if some track improvements could be made that also would help in their freight operations.
i would love to see an extension to duluth to add to the other extensions.
We all love to see that!
That would be a project called the northern lights express, Please write your representatives in favor if you would like to see it happen.
I hope they seriously consider a route through Eau Claire and Madison. This would basically follow the former Chicago & Northwestern, now Union Pacific. A train into Madison would put the second largest city in Wisconsin on the Amtrak network. plus restore Madison to Chicago rail service.
I have seen a lot of people comment about asking for service to Madison and other places in Wisconsin.
@@TranscontinentalRailfan - Madison is the obvious addition; it must be one of the largest U.S. cities without rail passenger service. Unfortunately, the at grade tracks through Madison would severely delay any MSP-CHI service, but a service aimed at connecting Madison to Chicago and St. Paul makes a lot of sense.
@ 100%
@@pacificostudios nope Madison isn't the largest without that would be Phoenix and the second largest is Columbus Ohio
@@IndustrialParrot2816 - That's nice. I said "one of the largest." More importantly, there are significant obstacles to adding Columbus and Phoenix to the Amtrak network. Columbus would have to either be a Cincy-Cleveland train, or a revival of the National Limited from Pittsburgh to St. Louis (assuming the tracks still exist). Likewise, its been found that reopening the ex-SP Welton Branch is not cost effective. Arizona is developing its Phoenix-Tucson regional train, which makes a lot more sense. A daily train from Los Angeles to Tucson with bus service from Maricopa to Phoenix seems most viable.
The real trouble with the Empire Builder is its lack of punctuality. Lack of punctuality is why riding it short distances was infeasible. A 2 hour delay is unacceptable for a trip that might only be 1-4 hours. The Borealis doesn't cross half the country to get to St. Paul, and tends to run on time. The Borealis is basically the historical Afternoon Hiawatha to Chicago and the Morning Hiawatha to St. Paul.
It’s more an issue with Train 8 eastbound then train 7 westbound.
@@wiscorailfan - Obviously. But that's not very important for people traveling round-trip, eh?
Great video and great news conveyed as well. Maybe hopefully this could lead to true highspeed rail between these two destinations and beyond in the years ahead.
If the Borealis keeps setting records for on time performance and passenger growth, I think that the next train to be introduced is Chicago to Green Bay?
That train would also be welcome also but in that case either the train should continue to get to Saint Paul or have it split into two trains at some point so there would still be more service to St. Paul.
Makes sense. Maybe continue one Hiawatha per day north of Milwaukee? Or, if you want to go all-in, two Hiawathas, one of them running Appleton-Oshkosh-Fond du Lac and the other Sheboygan-Manitowoc? I don't even know if there's existing track on both those routes, just spitballing.
@@sturmovik1274There used to be trackage between Sheboygan and Green Bay directly, however today it’s been chopped up with segments of rail missing between Sheboygan and Manitowoc, and Manitowoc to Denmark. Certainly not impossible to rebuild the trackage, but right now the freight railroad does have it’s reasons to keep it severed as it currently is
@@northwoodsrailproductions4538 Understood, thank you.
There is existing track ready to use that the CN runs right now through the Fox River Valley Cities (Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Menasha, Appleton and Kaukauna) to Green Bay @@sturmovik1274
I guess it’s time to put the double track back in between Pewaukee and St. Paul.
I'm going to say this in this video too, they should make a three tier system, tier 1 should be long distance travel with one station per state, tier 2 should be statewide travel (I know that in some states, the population is smaller than others, so in turn, a multi-state service should be in place, like states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, up in the Midwest, but then there some states the small enough in the northeast that should combine the system with each other too), tier 3 should be citywide transit
Here is a lesson on how to give 3 minutes of information in 8 minutes. Besides the repetitive script, you also get to repeatedly watch irrelevant B-roll. How interesting.
I am so sorry that this video wasted your five minutes, so that you were unable to complete the electrification of the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor, as you had planned.
Most news updates would be better served by the Shorts format. The one minute limit forces people to stay on point.
Go passenger trains.
Yes!!!
The one thing they need to do is add a 2nd set of tracks
That's the decision of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks. While it's certainly possible, it wouldn't be cheap, especially where the track hugs the Mississippi River. CP's own traffic on that line isn't enough to justify a second track, or they'd have done it. I'm not against it in principle, but CP would be justified in asking Amtrak/state/federal gov't to cover the costs.
Yep! They were thinking about that!
@@sturmovik1274 Are you aware that the route was double tracked until the route was single tracked in the eighties?
@@mprooveit3588 I wasn't, but it doesn't surprise me. A lot of double- and more track was taken up back then that railroads would like to have back now.
They single tracked it beginning in 1991 I believe, which is funny because I heard Soo Line (Now CPKC) wanted it because it was double track.
This is great news. -- On a distinct but related note, when I read the comment section of these channels, I find that there is almost no awareness of the Amtrak/State Partnership program. Only 18 states participate and almost no one understands why Amtrak expands in some states and not in others. They think that the decisions are entirely made by Amtrak. -- It would not be wise because of the politics for either Amtrak or the FRA to try to educate the public in this regard. Then whose job, is it? Thomas Jefferson believed in the efficacy of an informed public. What to do in an era where the NYT, WAPO, and NBC are called "fake news" and the public seems to crave disinformation and invective.
Can real news like the Borealis ridership exceeding expectations have a chance in this environment?
Amtrak and their state partners need to get the equipment situation resolved FIRST and then talk about expansions.
They have a bunch of Equipment set to be delivered next year which will free up older rolling stock to be refurbished
@ That “older equipment” is going to the boneyard as soon as the new stuff is commissioned.
You may already know this, but for anyone who doesn't, in December 2023 they put out an RFP to replace the entire Superliner fleet. There have been delays, but hopefully improvement is coming.
@@sturmovik1274 The spastic efforts for fleet renewal go back almost a decade. There were a lot of curveballs thrown that, frankly, were self inflicted. Thanks to the Airo order the Superliner replacement initiative should be irrelevant to state supported services. To that end, if Minnesota is truly serious about supporting Borealis service expansion then find some funds to add coaches and cabcars (and maybe locomotives) to the Midwest Venture fleet.
Update: A prominent passenger-rail youtuber says that a contract is expected in late 2025 with deliveries beginning about 2030. They don't give a source.
Maybe people too are realizing that getting there is half the fun, that air travel is too chancy and takes too long to both get to an airport and to board a plane. Then there is getting out of the destination airport.. Whereas with trains, you're always down on earth and the stations in between big cities are small, compared to nearly all airports.. (unless you're wealthy enough to fly on private jets !)..Or maybe it's just that I've never liked planes and have always loved trains,..real and miniature...