St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago Corridor service H2 2024

[Willbridge]

The Empire Builder was a Great Northern train -
Great Northern merged/bought/consolidated with the Burlington folks - - -

Interesting would be an image of the actual routes of the competing 4 railroads -
The current EB operates from MSP to CHI on mostly CP (old Milwaukee - Soo?) tracks
Minnesota side of the Mississippi river
The Burlington (GN) route would have been on the Wisconsin side ?
Chicago/Northwestern - Hudson WI - Eau Claire Black River Falls Madison (present UP trackage ?
Northern Pacific ?

Interesting enough how some of these trains could travel at triple digit speeds -
BUT THEN THERE WAS NO FREIGHT INTERFERENCE and heavy rail loads tearing the firmament
out from under the railroad bed were nonexistent !

Although the Soo, like the Chicago Great Western and the Rock Island. went between Chicago and the Twin Cities, its main value was for service to small cities along the way. For example, the rotogravure supplement that we carried in our high school paper was shipped from Waukesha on the Soo, connecting to the Mainstreeter in St. Paul. There may have been a tariff reason for that, or the printer may have been in Waukesha. It wasn't the fastest way.

The Burlington leaving the Twin Cities was on the Wisconsin side, the Milwaukee was on the Minnesota side. The North Western's fast trains CHI<>MSP ran via Milwaukee, Wyeville, and Eau Claire. The Milwaukee and the North Western both had alternate routes.

 

[railiner]

The Empire Builder was a Great Northern train -
Great Northern merged/bought/consolidated with the Burlington folks - - -

Prior to the merger between the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Burlington, and SP&S; the Empire Builder was a Great Northern train from Seattle to St. Paul, and then a Burlington train from St. Paul to Chicago, as were all the other GN and NP trains conveyed to Chicago by the Burlington.
Prior to the merger, IIRC, the Burlington was jointly owned by the latter two.

 

[NewRails]

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!

Yes, WisDOT is doing well. They have hired consultants for Phase 1 planning in each of the "Corridors" it has identified.
Interestingly enough it decided to combine Eau Claire and Madison, Wisconsin as one CID route (from Milwaukee on a yet to be specified route).
Did North Carolina combine any of the CID routes for which it received Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding?

 

[OmahaRoad]

Yes, WisDOT is doing well. They have hired consultants for Phase 1 planning in each of the "Corridors" it has identified.
Interestingly enough it decided to combine Eau Claire and Madison, Wisconsin as one CID route (from Milwaukee on a yet to be specified route).
Did North Carolina combine any of the CID routes for which it received Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding?

Makes sense that they combined those routes, at least for efficiency's sake! I can actually answer you question as the Carolinas Association for Passenger Trains (CAPT; soon rebranding to All Aboard Carolinas!) included info on what consultants were selected for each, and no, they did not combine any of them it seems.

Keeping myself on the topic of this thread, I am excited to see the results of the WisDOT studies when they are completed. I love thinking about how when, one day, if trains return to Madison, how full the trains will be, just like the Borealis is experiencing and honestly, probably even more so!