Search results

Aha, thank you very much! I am pretty new here so wasn't aware that people had assembled that resource for all trains. I will take a look. It is very helpful to know that people consider the 2nd lowest bucket a good deal and what the general threshold is where some people won't travel! Thanks...

Thanks Chad, I appreciate it! I will definitely be taking the CL if I do choose to do Amtrak (which I hope to). Do you have any experience with what a usual/reasonable price for a roomette is on the CL?

Hi all! I'm thinking about taking the CL in late December from D.C. to Chicago. I was going to ask what (if any) the major differences are between the CL and the Cardinal, but it appears all sleeper options on the Cardinal have sold out since I last looked on Friday. I have not yet done an...

Ah, why am I not surprised that MnDOT is a large part of the cause. Did she mention anything specific that you remember? MnDOT (may as well still be called the Dept. of Highways, cough, cough) has a long history of slow-walking or active hostility towards anything intercity non-car...

I don't mind the idea of the Arrowhead, but seeing as that name referred specifically to the Arrowhead region of northeast Minnesota, of which Duluth is a part, it wouldn't fit as well. Unfortunately the North Star cannot be used (it would be an equal name to the TC Hiawatha, in my opinion)...

Yes, I remember those technically unofficial, yet officially communicated, announcements! I agree that Wisconsin really jumped the gun and was the primary reason the general public started thinking that fall 2023 when in reality, a few years ago the original start years were (at least from some...

Ha, glad to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't love the Great River name. It did strike me as odd, given that it's not, to give a goofy example, a route that follows the Mississippi (to the extent possible) all the way from St. Paul to St. Louis. Now that route could certainly be called...

Many may have seen this elsewhere, but we've finally received an official update on the status of the Chicago-Twin Cities second daily train: The service will begin sometime in 2024, according to both MnDOT and WisDOT. Of course, they offer no guarantees. Also, the construction timeline for the...

I don't think you're naive at all--you put what I said above ("There are lots of "younger people" (say, 35-ish and under) I know who can't afford or justify the cost of sleepers but don't want to be subjected to a night of coach, who would prefer to take trains for personal, environmental, or...

Hi DetroitDave, I'm new here but wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your travel report on this trip! It must have been very unsettling to have that death on-board, and I am glad that was the most eventful part, overall. Your pictures are great and really helped give me a better idea of...

This is an interesting question! It's actually something I've been wondering about myself recently. I appreciate the knowledge and context that others who know more than me about historic services have shared. From my perspective, I'd be interested in taking longer (though not a 16-18-hour...

@TheVig , thank you! I appreciate it. Took the train (Piedmont) to Charlotte for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was great. (Though I do see now why the upcoming Gateway station will be such a game-changer compared to the current station!)

Thanks to @jis for reporting from RailNation Meridian in another thread: Amtrak seems to be saying that the TCMC/second train won't actually be starting until 2024, if I read the post right. I know that this "delay" (at least from what was promised at some time) will disappoint a *lot* of...

Thank you! I joined CAPT several months ago (or sometime earlier this year--time really flies!) and also contribute to the RPA as I am able :) (In addition to All Aboard MN back home in MN!) The NC Train Host program is a great one! I probably wouldn't have time to do it now since I'm early in...

Ah, thank you for the info. Good to know what it actually was! Hoping for some updates (or even the official announcement) from the Great River Rail Commission (GRRC), the DOTs and Amtrak on the TCMC in the coming month or so, but we'll see. Another tidbit from the Sept. GRRC meeting is that...

Interesting, I'd not seen that rumor! I will say that, having attended the most recent Great River Rail Commission meeting (virtually) and tracking the project very closely, I've not heard of any of that, so I think the combined idea remains in the realm of rumor. That being said, it would...

THe NLX (Duluth train) will NOT go to St. Cloud; it will be splitting off from the BNSF mainline that the Northstar uses to then head north to Duluth, starting on the Hinckely Subdivision (ex. Great Northern line, now BNSF as well). And there is a 99.9% chance it will be Amtrak...there's...

Bringing the NLX thread back to life! To attempt to answer your question, I think at this point, it's an open question as to if the NLX could be extended to Saint Paul. Since the project is still in its relatively early stages, I'd say it could happen, but who knows. Due to the sheer inertia and...

That's the rub--the old Midway station is located in-between two LRT stations, Raymond and Fairview, so it's a ~16-17 minute walk (20 or more if you're not as fast as Google says, older/lower mobility, or if it's icy/bad weather) to both the stations. And not a particularly pleasant walk...

Exactly! Lock VIA, Amtrak, CBP, CBSA, and whatever other municipal agencies are needed in a room until they can figure out some of these much-needed direct runs. I mean, the fact that the 'customs pre-clearance facility' (or whatever its technical name is) in Montreal hasn't been built, and the...