Illinois Amtrak Service

Mr. Andy Tower Opr. so far as I'm concerned, Federal funds appropriated under ARRA08 for passenger trains between Chicago and St Louis were used to build a new line so the UP could access their Gateway Center at Elwood. I hear reports of the Lincoln Service trains "holed" for UP.and even run into a siding behind another train waiting the opposing train, then backed out to run around the first train in the siding.

Some HSR!!!

Regarding Mr. ExCon's inquiry on previous page, the GM&O B&OCT X-ing @ Western Ave is Stop and Proceed.

That's HSR folks.

"Free Market, where you treat employees like crap, and use the government to pay for capex."

Tonight the 305 was
5 mins late leaving Joliet
1 min early at Dwight
3 mins early at Pontiac
9 mins early at Bloomington-Normal
3 mins early at Lincoln
8 mins early at Springfield
14 mins early at Carlinville
13 mins early at Alton
20 mins early at St. Louis

That's 76 mins faster than schedule. Nice!

Re: Speeds on Lincoln Route

As someone who has ridden this route many times over the years 1983-today, I have to remind all that the prior Amtrak schedules were rarely achieved; the route under CM&W (Southern Pacific) was in horrible shape and full of slow orders and delays were common so the current schedule is really a huge improvement. Not to mention that the ride is now silky smooth welded rail. Yes there are still times when you go in the hole for opposing traffic including freight, but overall, the stops are announced and usually not more than a few minutes. (Perhaps we can see double rail extended in the future). Unlike the old days, I have not encountered a backup move out of siding in the last few trips.
We also have new stations up and down the line.

The only negative that I miss from the old days is the connection to ATSF at Coal City that essentially offered double track for a short distance south of Joilet.

Business class is sold out on 3 of 4 SB trains tomorrow through next Tuesday. Sunday, 2 of 4 trains are completely sold out. And 3 of 4 NB trips on Friday are sold out.

Are the business class sell-outs real, or are they lacking a business class car (or portion of a car) on those trains? I'm guessing it's real, since there are days when only 2 trains have no BC left. When they run entirely with new train sets, will that add to the number of BC seats they offer? Seems revenue positive.

Of course, to pursue a point I've made elsewhere, the real issue is that Chicago remains a swamp, a moldering sty at the heart of the Amtrak system.

This route achieves good speeds, the speeds the project was designed for, consistently, but only south of Joliet. From Joliet to Chicago, the timetable is slow, and yet this area is still the source of significant delays (see my own half-hour stop at Western 3 months ago, mentioned above.) Amtrak has to fix the south side of Chicago if it wants to move forward as a real transportation system.

ryanwc wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 6:28 am When they run entirely with new train sets,....

Mr. Ryan, you note that you are aware that there are Lincoln Service sets comprised entirely of new Ventures. Does this mean that some Cafe' cars have now been accepted, or is on-board F&B some kind of "panic box" (that term is, or was, official Amtrakese) arrangement?

Yes, all the Lincoln Service trains have a business and cafe combo car. I think there's 15 biz class seats. The new Venture business class cars have more business class seats, 36 see below. Has anyone seen one on the Lincoln Service? I haven't yet.

Trains.com - Venture business-class cars debut in Midwest: Trip report

The business class/coach has 11 rows of two-and-one seating, plus two single business-class-width seats opposite a table. There is another business class seat next to a wheelchair space in the car’s coach section. In addition to those 36 seats, there are 16 coach-width seats positioned at two tables, in separate rows, and against the end bulkhead.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... ip-report/

New business cars are in service however there is a catch. They are being used as regular coaches and anyone can sit there. Those that pay a business fare are directed to the half of the Amfleet Cafe car that has parlor seating. That is only half a car so the number of business class seats on the line are small plus I believe Amtrak gives folks a chance to "bid up" to business class when there is availability increasing the number of sell outs.

Yes, Amtrak will send a notification to bid for an upgrade to business class about a day before departure. I don't know how many seats have to be available for them to put out the offer. A few times earlier this year on the Sunday 302, I got the upgrade STL-SPI for the minimum bid of $7.

twropr wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 6:49 pm To compare what could be with what we just got, let's examine the proposed schedule of 301 - the fastest train, making limited stops at Joliet,
Bloomington-Normal, Springfield and Alton. With the new schedules posted on amtrak.com, I see that 301 makes the 220 miles from Joliet
to Alton in 3 hours (180 min.). 73.3 MPH average speed. 301, running at timetable speeds and stopping at BNL (5 min.), Springfield (4 min.)
and Alton (2 min.) could run the 220 miles in 165 min. (80 MPH average).
When TRAINS MAGAZINE announced the agreement in 2010 between Amtrak, IDOT and UP, 4-hr CHI-STL running time was proposed. Allowing
40 min. CHI-JOL, 165 min. JOL-ALN and 35 min. ALN-STL comes up to 240 min. (or 4 hrs).
So, it appears that UP insisted upon 15 min. of padding between JOL and ALN.
How many freights does UP run over this route? Are there Amtrak delays caused near the Global terminal at Joliet due to main track being used
for switching or intermodal trains being held out of the terminal?
Andy

I am sure there are speed increases along the Joliet to Alton tracks, a much smoother ride, new rolling stock arriving, etc; but the trains’ average speed is still less than driving parallel on the historic US Route 66. That’s assuming drivers do not stop at all the tourist attractions along the highway. Tourist attraction train riders can not visit as they zoom by at speeds over 100 mph. The Chicago to Joliet and Alton to St. Louis sections are creepy slow and bumpy. And this is the main reason the trains’ average speed are so slow.
I read the same basic truth applies to the Wolverine as well. It seems all higher speed trains traveling at a top speed of 110 mph barely average half that speed caused by congestion on the approaches to the major cities. So I agree more work is needed, but the freights have already invested much here already.
averaging 56 mph is not the final result we expected.

You're just bs-ing. I drove on Route 66. It had friggin' stoplights. You got lunch in Pontiac at the McDonald's because you had to stop there anyway. Stop making things up.

OK; so it appears that no Venture Cafe's are accepted at this time, and that the semi-permanently coupled Coach-Business sets are offering an "upgrade" for thirty six Coach passengers.

I have yet to observe a Venture only consist "out my way" on 380-383; observed 380(23) with the two car Venture set and a Horizon BC/Cafe. Observed from a distance 391(6 MAY) in Champaign (@ about 5th and Green, fellow Illini around here); that consist was Superliner.

I simply do not have occasion to observe Wolverines.

So who will get the "scoop" observing a Venture Cafe' in revenue service?

If you can't drive and can't hitch a ride, the driving time is infinite.
You can eat on the train while it's moving, while you have to stop to get food while driving, and saving time by eating while driving is quite dangerous.
You can't do much while driving other than the act of driving, unless you're willing to endanger yourself and others, all too common unfortunately. Just like there's freight traffic that could delay the train, there's car traffic that can cause delays. Car wrecks can cause delays too.
I'm sure this debate has been had a million times on here.

I suspect getting under 4.5 hrs is possible without another big expenditure. See the run of the 305 upthread. Just have to keep the freights out of the way, tall order I know. The reroute thru Springfield will probably help. It's still a few years away. I'm not a fan of moving to 10th because it puts the station more on the edge of things rather than more in the middle of things at 3rd, but it's happening.

More runs would help ridership. Is adding more possible, or do they have to do more double tracking and buy more locomotive and cars?