Chicago question

I heard that the Lake Shore Limited line going into Chicago is a bottleneck for the passenger trains going into Chicago. Which areas in the Chicago area cause the bottlenecks and how fast does the Lake Shore Limited go in the Chicago area?

Painfully slowly in my one experience of entering Chicago on the Lake Shore.

A major issue is freight interference on Norfolk Southern's portion of the former New York Central mainline, especially west of Porter, Indiana.

If the "six a day" (in each direction) that operates over the NS "Water Level Route" Porter-Chi are "more or less" on time, NS will 'clear the railroad". However, with "late equipment sets" and "hold for connections" that are endemic to Amtrak's Chicago operations, "anything goes'. NS has a busy railroad to operate - and it will only get busier as the economy recovers.

Passenger rail projects, such as the now abuilding "Englewood flyover" (enabling METRA RI trains to proceed without interfering with Amtrak trains on the PRR), as well as the proposed 'Grand X-ing' project (enabling Amtrak IC trains to interchange from the PRR to the IC where they now X at an overpass), restoration of the abandoned NYC (where the Century and Broadway once "raced" one another) as a passenger only route through South Chicago to Hammond, and building a flyover at Porter to expedite Michigan trains, all will minimize congestion without requiring NS to "give up the railroad' to passenger trains that are not putting one dime in their coffers beyond some "incremental offset".

disclaimer; author holds long position NSC

Everyone: Speaking of bottlenecks: I am surprised no one mentioned the infamous South Branch Bridge over the Chicago River's
South Branch that is adjacent just S of Amtrak's CHI yard...It amazes me how many trains must use that bridge to enter and/or
leave CHI...I feel that this could be the most important bottleneck of them all S of Union Station...MACTRAXX

I believe it's 10/day corridor trains Porter-Chicago (including both directions). You've got 3x RT to Detroit, 1x to Port Huron, and 1x to Grand Rapids. Plus the Cap and the LSL. In other words, You have 14 total passenger trains, more than just about any other route outside of NEC.

That's in addition to CSX(PM), CP(Soo), and NS freights. NS alone runs a handful of freights *every hour*. This is one busy railroad. If you've ever spent any time on the main, it's hard not to notice.

If I may add about the South Branch Bridge bottleneck, let's not forget about adding in Metra's Heritage and the Southwest "cannonball" commuter runs. Back to Amtrak, doesn't the Cardinal use this routing?

Amtk30

I want to add three more locations on it that I don't see here

NS CP 518
NS west to Brighton Park, & Metra Southwest(CW&I) & Amtrak Cardinal/Hoosier State Branches off here south towards the BRC.

NS CP 509 BRC Connector, & the Calumet River Bridge).

also
NS CP 503 Hick draw Bridges over the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal(Grand Calumet River), & IHB Main line connector.

Also to a lesser extent at 21st. St also got the Amtrak Texas Eagle, & Lincoln Service trains, plus the 6 Metra Heritage Corridor Service trains, & frequent amtrak yard moves that uses the bridge.

Also that my last Experience on the Capital Limited my train did not get in until 11:45am into Chicago this past November because of heavy freight traffic since Toledo, OH, & gotten worse after passing through Porter, & the Lake Shore Limited caught up on us, & ran directly behind the CL then at Porter we meet an stopped Pere Marquette, listening to the dispatcher on my scanner in the sleeper, dispatcher ran the Capital Limited, Pere Marquette, & the Lake Shore around many stopped freight train all the way to Chicago, & even passed by an Stopped Metra Southwest train at CP 518, not only that Track crew had one of the mains down for track work.

how often does the bridge open ? . what is the speed limit . How high would it have to be raised to not have to open ? .
A google street view from South Lumber street is quite interesting . not exactly prime real estaste , for so close to Union Station .

It does not open for the tours my kayak company offers of downtown, passing under it almost daily in the summer. It does however, open for barges a fair number of times a day. Not sure how high it would have to be lifted. The trick being that it's headed into a squirrel's nest of el and other tracks after the cross. I'm not clear where trains head once they're across, but you can probably make out on the google map image that one or possibly two tracks veer SW onto elevated tracks, while two head due south going under those same tracks. If you raise the bridge, you've got quite an engineering marvel to pull off.

The bridge openings are mostly quick, and the barges actually wait.

For what's it's worth, my partner once saw a passenger on a pleasure boat grab a girder on that bridge and hold on as the boat pulled out from under him. The boat turned around and gathered him in before he fell.

As to the comment about prime real estate, there are boat yards (ie, where people drydock their motorboats and sailboats), food distribution companies and one warehouse that seems to hold a fair number of import/export offices and small businesses. It's not the Mag Mile, but I bet it goes for more than what you'd think looking at it.

That real estate was quite rough a decade ago. It was railroad yard and tanneries for most of the twentieth century, and it was vacant for the 90's. Now there's a park and some boat yards. If you saw "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, you may recognize they filmed part of it nearby. Also, historic pictures of this area show The Cuneo Press behind most CUS-bound trains, and they filmed "Backdraft" in the abandoned Cuneo Press, destroying a large part of it in the process.

You may notice that I dig the south side - some of the best and most interesting railroading and railfanning happens between Chicago Union Station and Michigan City, IN. It's so densely packed and varied, from transit to the heaviest freights and everything in between.