Illinois Amtrak Service

Mr.T wrote: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.

Here is the Illinois rail map, which may help some follow the interesting discussion above, and may help you answer your question about Watch Ave.

http://www.dot.state.il.us/officialrailmap.pdf

As I often do Saturday morning, I observed "Carl" passing 18.34. Included in 381(10)'s consist was freshly repainted NPCU 90200. Assumng Amtrak has continued with past practice of having the last three digits same as the F-40 from which the NPCU was converted, #200 was part of the first batch to be delivered during April 1976. Happilly gone are the grilles that were installed over the windshields (the exposure to employee injury from intentionally flown objects has not been reduced, stronger glass has been developed).

Gilbert B Norman wrote:A prediction for which I hope I'm mistaken:

'they'll be gone in a year".

It looks like the "Boy King' has got the Illinois gubernatorial election in the bag. I sure would like to think it was for merits that make the voters believe he can continue to do the job better than could his opponent, but then we know voters tune out negative ads....don't they??

I love it when I can fact-check cynicism (well, to put the best spin on it it was merely cynicism; it looked a lot like political cant at the time).

At any rate, Mr. Gilbert, here's the reality:

From http://mwhsr.blogspot.com/ -- "Governor Blagojevich's new budget submitted to the General Assembly three days ago fully funds Amtrak service in Illinois, so congratulations to him."

ne plus ultra wrote:

Gilbert B Norman wrote:A prediction for which I hope I'm mistaken:

'they'll be gone in a year".

It looks like the "Boy King' has got the Illinois gubernatorial election in the bag. I sure would like to think it was for merits that make the voters believe he can continue to do the job better than could his opponent, but then we know voters tune out negative ads....don't they??

I love it when I can fact-check cynicism (well, to put the best spin on it it was merely cynicism; it looked a lot like political cant at the time).

At any rate, Mr. Gilbert, here's the reality:

From http://mwhsr.blogspot.com/ -- "Governor Blagojevich's new budget submitted to the General Assembly three days ago fully funds Amtrak service in Illinois, so congratulations to him."

Thanks for the link!!

I saw a recent article on Michigan increasing the amount of 95 mph track by 20 miles or so. Is Illinois looking at speeds above 79 mph anytime soon?

I came across this photo and wondered, is this part of the route that was upgraded to 110 mph standards in Illinois? The track looks like it could be high speed...

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20070 ... 829374.jpg

The picture you linked to is in Braintree, Massachusetts, on MBTA's newly relaid Greenbush Branch.

Hahaha...sorry, I thought it said Ill, not II or whatever that is! Not that Illinois photos would even be on a New England website. Sorry!

Looks like the Midwest High Speed Rail Association has added a few more corridors to their plan....(unless i completely missed them the first time i looked at it)

- Union Pacific West: Chicago - Elburn - DeKalb

- Union Pacific Northwest: Chicago - Harvard - Janesville

From the WBBM website:

Amtrak ridership continues to show sharp gains in Illinois -- and officials don't simply attribute it to gas prices.

"We've had 150,000 more Amtrak passengers in Illinois since late October," spokesman Marc Magliari said Saturday. "That's the size of a couple of downstate cities."

I'm not sure where the 150,000 comes from; my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that there were about 67,000 more riders in the first three months of the new service, so unless February and the first half of March were off the charts, I don't see how you get there.

mkellerm wrote:From the WBBM website:

Amtrak ridership continues to show sharp gains in Illinois -- and officials don't simply attribute it to gas prices.

"We've had 150,000 more Amtrak passengers in Illinois since late October," spokesman Marc Magliari said Saturday. "That's the size of a couple of downstate cities."

I'm not sure where the 150,000 comes from; my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that there were about 67,000 more riders in the first three months of the new service, so unless February and the first half of March were off the charts, I don't see how you get there.

well, it seems steep, but not impossible....

I know that 392 "Illini" picked up over 219 at Champaign (on top of the 80+ they already had onboard) a couple of Fridays ago for the start of U of I's spring break. Not sure how many the morning Saluki 390 picked up....or the "City" for that matter. SIU's spring break was the week before U of I's and I remember it being pretty busy.

Not sure how well the Quincy corridor trains did for spring break...and of course ISU has a swarm of Lincoln Service trains to hop on....

...and then of course...all those kids had to go back to school a week later

With the timetable change, #381 Carl Sandburg now leaves CHI 735A instead of 8A.

I found such out this morning; I usually time my Sat AM visit to the "coffee house with a view' to observe Carl's passing. Funny how he passed while I was still walking to the shop.

bmichel5581 wrote: I know that 392 "Illini" picked up over 219 at Champaign (on top of the 80+ they already had onboard) a couple of Fridays ago for the start of U of I's spring break.

I was one of the students taking the train home that day. I remember thinking, as it pulled in, "there's going to be no one on that train, all the SIU and EIU students are on break." Sure enough, just one guy disembarked in Champaign.

The Illini and Saluki trains are extremely useful, but I feel there are some improvements Amtrak could be making to improve service. The turning of the train at the wye in Chicago before unloading could be eliminated by adding cabbage cars to both trains, thus shaving time off the schedule (and allowing its passengers to transfer to a wider variety of Metra trains to the suburbs). Boarding procedures are extremely slow in Champaign, and I'm assuming at Carbondale as well (the person sitting next to me said that the train, which was an hour late coming into CHM, departed Carbondale a half hour late due to the slow passenger loading).

And a question about the Amtrak facilities in Carbondale - what exactly is there? Yesterday's southbound Illini was at least an hour and a half late due to engine problems, and a subsequent swap-out for an engine that was working. How would these engine problems have been dealt with had that train been departing Carbondale rather than Chicago?

A station is the only Amtrak facility available in Carbondale. There's a short stub-track between IC #1 and #2 main for storing the power, and a wye just north of the depot for wying the train. Other than that, there's ziltch.

byte wrote:

bmichel5581 wrote: I know that 392 "Illini" picked up over 219 at Champaign (on top of the 80+ they already had onboard) a couple of Fridays ago for the start of U of I's spring break.

I was one of the students taking the train home that day. I remember thinking, as it pulled in, "there's going to be no one on that train, all the SIU and EIU students are on break." Sure enough, just one guy disembarked in Champaign.

The Illini and Saluki trains are extremely useful, but I feel there are some improvements Amtrak could be making to improve service. The turning of the train at the wye in Chicago before unloading could be eliminated by adding cabbage cars to both trains, thus shaving time off the schedule (and allowing its passengers to transfer to a wider variety of Metra trains to the suburbs). Boarding procedures are extremely slow in Champaign, and I'm assuming at Carbondale as well (the person sitting next to me said that the train, which was an hour late coming into CHM, departed Carbondale a half hour late due to the slow passenger loading).

Actually they have no choice at Chicago. There is no way/route for them to take that would allow them to pull right in, engine first. There are long term infrastructure plans to create a connection at Grand Crossing, allowing the Illini, Saluki and City to use the route into the station that the Indiana? trains use.

Please elaborate on the slow boarding procedures?