Illinois Amtrak Service

mkellerm wrote:And the December numbers are out. Here are the headlines:

CHI-STL: ridership up 42.1%, revenue up 25.1%
CHI-CDL: ridership up 75.2%, revenue up 45.2%
CHI-QCY: ridership up 37.5%, revenue up 22.0%

My impression is that these are pretty good results, considering the service disruptions. Two of the three routes had larger YoY increases than November, and the third (CHI-STL) nearly matched its November increase despite several train cancellations. Combined, the three routes carried approx. 22,500 more passengers in Dec 2006 than in Dec 2005. The biggest concern would have to be the lower than expected revenues, which could force IDOT to pony up more cash to keep the new trains running.

It sounds like they're undercharging for the new trains, if ridership is up more than revenue, unless the additional passengers are taking shorter trips on average.

One thing to keep in mind -- if any substantial number of riders on the Chgo St. Louis route are government employees heading to Springfield, then revenue numbers are immaterial -- for these riders, the state is saving a lot more than it's subsidy, because the ride is cheaper than paying people to drive to Springfield. This was one of the justifications given by the legislature for the service, and it was a recommendation of the state's independent auditor general that more state employees be pushed to use the service, and/or to cap the reimbursement at roughly the Amtrak rate in order to force employees to pay their own way if they require the convenience of a car in Springfield.

To the list of cities seeking new service in Illinois (Peoria, Rockford, Quad Cities), you can add ...

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2 ... 020636.txt

That's right. Decatur wants in now. You can smell the meat a-cookin'.

I wonder if they even know what they're asking for. There is mention of Chicago-Decatur service. Yet here is my link to the state railmap:
http://www.dot.state.il.us/officialrailmap.pdf
As you can see, there is no direct route Decatur-Chicago.

If we took this as a serious proposal, I wonder which way it would run. I think a commuter operation to Springfield would make most sense. WB in the morning early enough to catch the first NB train. EB in the afternoon late enough to take the passengers from one of the later SB trains.

If you really wanted one-seat operation Decatur-Chicago, you could run it west to the CN (old IC) tracks and up through Champaign. This, however, would require either 3 miles of new curving track and a couple switches, or else the abandonment of most of the west side of the town of Tolono.

I think the best idea of all (well, if any of them make sense, and I'm not sure they do) would be a commuter/intercity line that ran all the way Springfield-Decatur-Champaign, with two small consists, so it could be run each direction for commuters. However, this would still require the work in Tolono.

The east-west trackage is NS. Anyone know anything about the condition of the track?

Exploring a little further, I found that Rick Harnish's Midwest High Speed Rail coalition, key people behind the current expansion, have a brochure on the Chicago-St. Louis service which mentions "with a modest improvement in switches and signals, Springfield could be linked to Champaign and Decatur."

I have to say the coalition's website (www.midwesthsr.org) is vastly improved since Christmas, apparently matching their newfound ambitions. Interesting. Take a look. The internal links aren't particularly well structured, so play around with different links in order to see everything.

[edited - a better link is to the MWHSR fast track proposal here:
http://www.midwesthsr.org/il_fastTrack.htm ]

ne plus ultra wrote:If you really wanted one-seat operation Decatur-Chicago, you could run it west to the CN (old IC) tracks and up through Champaign. This, however, would require either 3 miles of new curving track and a couple switches, or else the abandonment of most of the west side of the town of Tolono.

From the aerial map on maps.live.com , it looks like there is an existing connection in the northwest quadrant of the crossing at Tolono. The NS line is a major route, and Decatur is the center of NS operations in that part of the world, so it is likely to be capacity rather than track condition that is the major obstacle.

mkellerm wrote:

ne plus ultra wrote:If you really wanted one-seat operation Decatur-Chicago, you could run it west to the CN (old IC) tracks and up through Champaign. This, however, would require either 3 miles of new curving track and a couple switches, or else the abandonment of most of the west side of the town of Tolono.

From the aerial map on maps.live.com , it looks like there is an existing connection in the northwest quadrant of the crossing at Tolono. The NS line is a major route, and Decatur is the center of NS operations in that part of the world, so it is likely to be capacity rather than track condition that is the major obstacle.

Thanks for that link. Google maps didn't zoom in close enough to see anything. I thought there was nothing there, and being confused about how close up I was looking, I didn't even think there was space, but your link clearly shows the curve.

ne plus ultra wrote:[edited - a better link is to the MWHSR fast track proposal here:
http://www.midwesthsr.org/il_fastTrack.htm ]

I can't find any mention of the Illinois track upgrades on that site. Are there still plans to run at 110 mph on the upgraded track between Dwight and Springfield?

ne plus ultra wrote: [edited - a better link is to the MWHSR fast track proposal here:
http://www.midwesthsr.org/il_fastTrack.htm ]

The resolution of the maps is terrible.

Seems that 110 mph trains will not be running in Illinois anytime soon.

http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/a ... eSection=3

With many miles of track upgraded to Class 6 standards, hopefully they will pursue Michigan's ITCS or maybe just install something low tech, like ATS to allow 90 mph at least.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Springfield area but I know it well and would like to give my 2 cents. This is confusing but accurate to the best of my knowledge.

For those who don't know, the NS mainline through Springfield actually shares right of way with the UP (Amtrak runs on UP) south of the city.

Approaching Springfield from the South(UP) or West (NS) The lines merge ROW and turn Northeast for a short distance before spliting and heading North into city limits. The UP runs down the center of (brick paved!) Third Ave. The NS Mainline runs Paralel just about a mile to the east (paralel to Tenth Ave.) Once the NS reaches Grand Avenue it turns east and heads out of town. The UP turns a little and continues Northeast.

Now this is where it gets confusing...The Amtrak Station is basically in the north "downtown" district of Springfield on the UP. It is within walking distance of the Capital and Lincoln district (Main Attractions) About 2.5 miles northeast up track is the UP connection with the I&ML. This switch is trailing when approaching from the South (Heading north to Chicago)

About a mile to the South of that switch is the I&ML's connection with the NS.

SO!

With the way things are set up right now a Train on NS heading East, that would need to stop at the Amtrak station, would pull onto the UP at the current UP/NS interchange (DUH!) . It would head north on UP through Downtown Springfield stopping at the current Amtrak Station. It would continue up-track another 2.5 miles to the trailing I&ML switch, reverse south on the I&ML (Poor track might I add) a mile to the NS. Then switching out of the NS yard before continuing to points eastward! A UP/NS connection on the north side of town wold have to cut east-west just over a mile through the center of a residential area.

To make it simple, an East-West Amtrak route on NS through Springfield is NEVER going to happen!!!!

One more problem!!!

The City of Springfield and UP should look into is making that stretch of track safer. The UP track, runs right down the middle of Third Street, Between the red bricks Third Ave. is paved with, and the red ballast UP has down, it is somewhat hard to see where the street ends, roadbed starts/ends and street starts up again. I've spent alot of time in that city and have seen alot of close calls with trains running up Third Street and drivers not paying attention. I've also seen people run up onto the tracks and do damage, resulting in MOW inspection delays.

ENJOY!
-scotty

There is talk once again here in Springfield about moving the Amtrak Station to the 10th street tracks with a new combined transportation center with Greyhound ,City Bus and Train etc.

this would be a major misteak as the location for the Amtrak Station is walking distance to all the major tourist and State capital etc.

Also of note.
the old B&O Station restoration is almost complete the clock tower that was taken down in the 60+ years ago was put back up with 4 working clocks

I'm with you on that one. I'm from Chicago(but have alot of family down there) so I dont know day to day stats, but it seems to me that the area between Tenth street and I-55 is a little rough around the edges.

BUT

Perhaps a new transit center is just the thing to get the east side of town out of its current state. An East-West route could work on NS if there was a station along that stretch of tracks(NS - Tenth St.). I didn't take that into account in my previous post. Are they looking to reloacte the UP, much like they did the IC?

Is the track parallel to E. Watch Ave. still there? If so, it might offer a forward running connection between UP and NS, eliminating the reverse move. The track appears on wikimapia.org but not on google map, so I'm guessing it's probably abandoned.

boyishcolt wrote:There is talk once again here in Springfield about moving the Amtrak Station to the 10th street tracks with a new combined transportation center with Greyhound ,City Bus and Train etc.

this would be a major misteak as the location for the Amtrak Station is walking distance to all the major tourist and State capital etc.

Also of note.
the old B&O Station restoration is almost complete the clock tower that was taken down in the 60+ years ago was put back up with 4 working clocks

Funny you should mention that; there is an article about the proposal to move the Springfield Amtrak station in today's (Springfield) State Journal-Register. Question: would relocating to the 10th Street corridor save any running time? It looks (marginally) less congested than 3rd Street from Google maps.

location location location as we say in Real Estate

Where it is now is close to and in walking distance to Old and New State Capitals, many State Offices and new Abraham Presidential Museum and new proposed Korean War Museum and major banks
This would be a major misteak moving the station
Not sure about the track on Watch Ave. i have to go out and take a look

there has been talk of this for many years (1970's)of relocating both the 3rd and 10th street tracks to along I-55
and many studies were done
this would be a great for Freight Trains but i don't ever think we will see that happen