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On 7/24, train 4 was at the Raton station for 15+ minutes. I don't know what it was doing, but I presume that since it was the first station after the announced cancellation, that it waited there to make sure its orders were correct before leaving us chumps there who foolishly thought we'd be...

OP Boy Scout Adult Advisor here. All three scout groups tried to call Amtrak in the immediate aftermath of the cancellation. I was personally on hold for an hour before getting to anyone. I actually had two phones on my person; one holding for Amtrak and one for Amtrak Guest Rewards. AGR...

I was an adult advisor for a 10-person Boy Scout Crew returning from Philmont (Raton NM) on Wed 7/24/24. There were two other crews with another 20 people on our school bus shuttle from Philmont ready to go home as well. We were encouraged all day to see that train 4 was on time. Then about...

First of all, completely forget about the imaginary timetable for the eastbound Empire Builder. That's not reliable for MSP-CHI service and should not be promoted by Amtrak as MSP-CHI service. For going eastbound, add another morning / early afternoon departure Borealis. The current...

What the future holds is that there will be more Hiawathas between MKE and CHI. But SOME of them will be extended to GB, MSP, and MSN. What would be be confusing to non-foamers is that there are 4 completely different names for a train that goes between MKE and CHI. What would make a lot of...

I don't know who chose it. The point still stands against whomever did make the choice. Two swings and two misses? Will they get a third swing? I hope so.

I guess it should be no surprise that Amtrak got two bites at the naming apple, and screwed up both of them. The name should have Hiawatha in it, period. It is so simple even a caveman could do it. But not Amtrak.

I rode the DPM the Sunday morning of Metallica weekend November 2023. Very few riders. The two stations we visited had one or two security guards. The DPM goes counterclockwise around its circuitous downtown loop. We rode it just for the sake of riding it and to see downtown. It was a nice...

I hope a CHI-MSN-MSP train would not swap ends of the train mid-ride in Madison. Many people (my wife for one) cannot ride backwards on a train or they'll get motion sickness.

You make a good point about train/plane connections at the Madison airport not being that important. As for car rentals, it may not be a big part of the customer base for the trains, but I can certainly see someone from MSP or CHI wanting to take the train and the drive the last bit. Just...

Wisconsin State Rail Map Too bad there isn't a good way to have the train enter Madison from the southeast (through McFarland), then up the isthmus to a stop at Monona Terrace, then up to a stop at the Madison Airport, then continue on to the north and west. Then there would be no back-up...

Where can I read more about this I-94 rail connection between SPUD and Target Field?

At least that's good news about the name. Great River is a terrible name for a train that spends as much time near to Lake Michigan as it does the Great River. Calling this train some derivative of the Hiawatha is what makes the most sense.

To answer the question about what type of cars the BC car is semi-permanently coupled to, there was this update to the article: "— Updated at 3:20 p.m. CDT to clarify that business cars will be semi-permanently coupled to coaches, not just cafes."

Projected timetable, from Wikipedia: "The Great River train will make 13 total stops from Chicago to St. Paul. Westbound, the journey will take 7 hours and 11 minutes, while it will take 7 hours 27 minutes eastbound. Each direction, the train will have a 5 minute long stop in Milwaukee. The...

Do you know of any information where you can find out what four projects those will be? I was unable to locate that information.

Great River (train) - Wikipedia Looks the train has a new name: Great River I do not like it. Doesn't even spend a third of its route along the Mississippi. Should call it the '400', except for the fact that our modern Amtrak can't manage to get this train to run on a 400 minute schedule...

That's what we're worried about. It is isn't the trainsets themselves. It is Amtrak's competence. What have they done in the last two decades to inspire confidence that they'll do things properly?

So if the diners cannot handle the capacity... doesn't that mean the diners are desirable and we should add more? Cutting them because they are too popular doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, I'd love it if they disconnected meals from the sleepers and adjusted the pricing. That would reserve...

My two cents on a couple of the the points made above: - Can't have backwards-facing seats on LD trains. The fact that they have them on corridor trains is really annoying. There are many people (my wife) that can't face backwards or they'll get motion sickness. Just turn the dang train at...