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Yeah, Milwaukee is close enough to Chicago that travel times for Milwaukee-originating passengers wouldn't be horrible, using that schedule. North/west-bound, it essentially provides a midnight train to St. Paul. South/east-bound, it provides an early-morning train to Chicago, potentially...

Congress passed a bill and the president signed it into law back in March that had some supplemental funding for Amtrak, in addition to a host of other COVID-related things. Then, in May, the House passed a bill with additional funding for Amtrak but the Senate has not acted on that bill.

It can't be all that surprising that a "little kid" would be unfamiliar with technology that has been obsolete for, what, 4+ decades.

Wes Edens - Milwaukee Bucks

That's what I recall as well. Glenview (and possibly other nearby suburbs) was concerned about locomotives idling next to homes. Projects in Wisconsin have continued to move forward (second platform at MKA, Muskego Yard improvements, etc.) while Illinois was going to look into alternatives to...

TRAINS magazine had an article in the last few months that covered the issue. I don't have the magazine at hand right now, but I think the FRA was looking into the issue. I do not remember what the status of the FRA study was nor if there was any speculation what FRA might do with the results.

"Virtual Railfan" perhaps?

What's your departure station? That will help us give you suggestions for finding your train and room.

Well, those station stops which allow one to step outside don't exactly occur that often; in many cases they are at least 5 hours apart.

Hasn't it been pretty well established that air exchange is at least as good, if not better, on planes as on trains? As for masks, they catch (some/many/most, depending on type) droplets. There's plenty of research available to demonstrate this for those interested in learning.

There are no scheduled station stops, smoking or not, between Houston and San Antonio.

This! A million times over. Well, maybe not quite a million, but there are probably dozens of feeder bus routes, serving both corridor and long-distance trains, that are at least worth looking into. Amtrak has added a few in recent years (Wilson to Eastern North Carolina and Newton to Oklahoma...

A quick look at old timetables suggests it was mainly 1995-1997 with many long distance trains operating less than daily.

Didn't the cuts in the mid-1990s result in most long-distance trains, or maybe it was just the western ones, being cut to less-than-daily service (I recall a mix of 3-, 4-, and maybe 5-days/week service) for a period of time? And then when the Desert Wind and Pioneer were cut the remaining...

Another huge hurdle is negotiating access to tracks. Freight railroads, which own most trackage, have not been too keen on working with non-Amtrak entities.

I had completely forgotten that Wisconsin was awarded a federal grant (last year?) for some amount of new equipment for the Hiawatha. I think most have assumed it will be Siemens equipment but I do not recall ever hearing anything more after the federal grant was announced.

I wondered the same thing but couldn't remember and, frankly, was too lazy to try to search for that information. But here's the MnDOT page with information including the 2015 study that looked at possible schedules.

There's a study somewhere on the MnDOT website from a few years ago that looked at possible schedules. Equipment would seem to be a guess at this point. Assuming all pre-COVID trains return, the Midwest Siemens cars would seem to be all spoken for but the Horizon equipment being replaced by...

Do you recall from the circa 2010 plans what portion of the Milwaukee-Madison route had been proposed for 110mph running?

I don't think I've ever seen a schedule for Chicago-Madison that had anywhere near that level of service, pre- or post-WWII. Chicago-Milwaukee had fairly frequent service on C&NW and MILW, as well as the North Shore interurban, but I don't know if any ever offered hourly service there either.