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A friendly correction is that North Carolina has an astounding *seven!* total CID routes, so I believe they have the most of any state! But WI is not far behind :) Grateful for the work that WisDOT is doing (compared to MnDOT, cough), and other DOTs like NCDOT!

I think the projections were all for the first *full* Amtrak fiscal year of operations, not by calendar year, as in the partial calendar year the Borealis will have in 2024. Although we'll be able to extrapolate what a full year of ridership may look like based on late May through September of...

They didn't really "pick" it, per se--it is the longest and most significant segment (maybe the only? this is unclear) that has sold out so far, so is the best example to show how the Borealis is doing. The other reason would be that Milwaukee to St. Paul selling out is a VERY important way to...

Indeed! Same here. Although the Amtrak and other folks who have hyped the "college students will take this train so much" might be a bit overestimating that demographic accounting for a giant amount of ridership, it will definitely be a boon in the colder months. I imagine that many students who...

Thanks very much!!

To follow-up on my previous post (generally and because I think some other posts that I received notifications for were deleted), the "Minnesota needs to pay" statements are about getting new *rolling stock* for the Borealis, specifically. My apologies for being so definitive--I think I saw a...

Bonjour! Welcome to this forum. I hope you get to ride Amtrak on a future visit. Two years ago I had a chance to ride a couple trains in/through France and it was amazing. It was my first time on a truly high-speed line! I will actually be in Paris for the Olympics + generally to see the city...

I've not heard anything about the Borealis getting Amfleet. Hasn't been discussed among MN advocates, at least, from what I've heard. WisDOT received Corridor ID money to study a third Borealis frequency; that study should be getting started this summer. Although MN was the laggard in funding...

I agree completely. I have seen several different estimates over the years, for some reason, one of which was something really small like 110 to 120k. If the ridership for the Borealis' first full year is below 200,000 at this point, I might actually be surprised, given how strongly it has...

Great news! I can't wait to see in another month or so (depending on data release dates) what the overall ridership was for the Borealis in Q2 2024 (the portion of Q2 it was running for, of course).

Oh, I know that's true for sure and I agree! Though when I was in Europe two years ago I did find the French trains I rode in coach very comfy; oddly enough ScotRail was also quite comfortable. German and Dutch trains, as Jis pointed out below, pretty much what the Venture seats are like. Not...

All very good points, and well taken. Perhaps my concern was prompted by the new Borealis rider who posted the thread about how much she hated the seats even as a day train, compared to the Empire Builder. I can imagine a ton of complaining about the accommodations should regular Horizon cars...

I may be missing something, but the Horizon cars don't have seats that recline enough to serve as overnight coaches, do they? No footrests either. The seats may be more comfortable to many than the new Venture seats, but it doesn't seem like they'd be a solution for this hypothetical overnight...

With all the discussion of the afternoon long-distance connections (a favored and warranted complaint for MSP people), I'd much rather get a train running from MSP - Kansas City (in MN state rail plan), with an eventual MSP - San Antonio (or Houston) long-distance train as discussed in the FRA...

True, but are there aren't really any extra cars available with reclining seats at the moment, are there? If cars aren't available, I can't think that trying to get an overnight service on the CHI-MSP route would take less than 6 years to start given the need for new equipment. All I ever hear...

Cool, that's good to know. I had a vague idea that those projects would be done sometime the next ~3+ years but wasn't at all sure when. I've seen that the Airos are meant to enter service on the Cascades in 2026. So basically, if all goes well on all fronts, there could be a 2nd Borealis...

True! Problem is that people end up taking the above statements as a promise of another frequency happening quickly. In the Minnesota context, there's a history of over-promising on passenger rail + timelines, and I don't want people to get overly excited and then crestfallen + angry when...

It's great to see this being mentioned by county elected officials + in the media, but of course, we here at AU know that it's not possible to add another daily train in the nearest term, at least not until a number of things (the original construction projects funded as part of the TCMC...

How/why did Amtrak "move you" to the Borealis? I've never heard of anyone being "moved" to the Borealis from the Empire Builder; that sounds very odd and I'm wondering if others can chime in. I am sorry to hear that you aren't enjoying the Borealis. I'd recommend sitting in the cafe car and...

Glad to hear it! Great news. Another win for NCDOT + all those looking to travel by train in NC!