Recent content by Steve4031

The current plan is to eventually run the Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle on the Rock Island Line using the unbuilt connection from Union Station yards to the St. Charles airline. The Rock Island line has too many grade crossings for high-speed running. IMHO, the current route between Chicago...

I just saw that on the update on the trainorders website.

The Venture cars have issues and enough are out of service that superliner cars were substituted on at least one of the Chicago Quincy trains. I saw a post about this on the Trainorders website. A photo accompanies the post showing the morning train to Chicago at Galesburg with a sightseer...

This is epic!!

When the 5 arrives early into EMY the busses do not get there earlier. One time I arrived 30 minutes early. I would have had to wait 45 minutes for the bus to depart. I took an uber to my hotel in San Francisco. I think I took one back the next morning. My reservation did not get canceled...

Kudos to all the people involved in checking the bridge quickly and kudos to Amtrak not canceling the train.

You always have the choice of the Lake Shore Limited and Cardinal for single-level trains. Didn't the B&O Capital Limited have dome cars?

I rode the Carl Sandburg from Galesburg to Chicago a few weeks ago in business class. I was surprised when I was directed to the Venture BC car. It was at the opposite end of the train from the food service car. I did not make it up to the food service car to determine the type. IMHO it...

IMHO Amtrak should resurrect the Chicago to Philadelphia Pennsyvanian. An Empire Service train could be extended to Cleveland and hopefully connect with the Pennsylvanian.

There is a drug smuggling/transportation issue on most Amtrak long-distance trains because there are no security procedures for checking luggage before boarding. Maybe the Amtrak police officer was there because he was on the lookout for someone.

These flex meals are not acceptable. It does not matter what you serve them on. They're slop. If Amtrak cleaned out the kitty litter box and served them on China, would that suddenly make them a great meal? I don't think so. The traditional dining service works. It is not perfect, but the...

IMHO, the fares posted here encourage people to use the Empire Builder. A roomette is not that much more than BC. At those price points, I would take a roomette over BC every time. The Empire Builder coach seats should be sold as BC seats between Chicago and Milwaukee. Those seats are way better...

The commuter stations at Naperville, Glenview and Homewood are prompt equipped for long term parking.

I like how the administrators here create threads for different categories for the other routes. I have not seen one for the Midwest corridors out of Chicago, so I thought I would start one. I discovered the following service alert while looking at a Sunday round trip on the Saluki. This is...

IMHO, marketing this as a one-seat ride to Florida is the only way. Many non-railfans lament the fact that there is no through train to Florida. Getting on and off of the same train is no better than changing from Capitol Limited to Silver Meteor or Star. They could schedule the stop in...