Yes, this is very interesting and honestly pretty shocking to me! The Borealis was sold to MN folks (advocates, residents, and politicians alike) with the current departure times, times that have been advertised as appropriately offsetting the Empire Builder's arrival/departure times.I don't recall hearing anything that Borealis replacing a Hiawatha trip was only temporary, and my assumption was that when an 8th CHI-MKE-CHI trip was someday added it would be at an entirely new time and Borialis would continue to leave CHI at 11:05 and return into CHI at 19:14. Obviously it had to use a Hiawatha slot to start service before CPCK allowed an additional train, of course. But it's interesting to think that the plan is to move it. I would be surprised it if was moved by more than 1-3 hours.
In particular, the earlier arrival in St. Paul is important and something that a lot of people are loving about the Borealis. I agree, Moselman, that it would be very surprising for the Borealis to be significantly moved. I would guess if they DO move it (which I really hope they do not), that it is only moved by 1 to 1.5 hours. Or I guess that is my hope. I really, really wonder how MN stakeholders feel about this, because I can't imagine they were expecting this?! We shall see what transpires I guess.