St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago (TCMC) second daily service

[Saddleshoes]

Those cars look suspiciously like the cars that just got replaced on the Illinois service.

 

[John Bredin]

Interesting that tonight the Borealis is a little late, but the corresponding Hiawatha 340 is on time.

Either the screen is wrong, or Amtrak sent out a Hiawatha trainset from Milwaukee as 340 when the Borealis became late.

 

[OmahaRoad]

There's nothing on any of the tracking websites. Must be a glitch/artifact in the system, unless there's an invisible 340 running, ha!

 

[John Bredin]

As the tracker map shows only 1340 just west of Milwaukee Station, and 340 *would* be south of Milwaukee Airport if it existed but there's nothing there, I presume the screen at Chicago Union Station was in error and there is no separate 340 tonight.

 

[WWW]

6:42 PM 1333 passing Highwood & HY61 MN traffic cam
operating with push-pull locomotive consist - Business/Cafe car behind lead loco

 

[WWW]

BOREALIS

DAY 1 - - -
1333 left CHI on time 11:05 arrived MSP 7:03 34 minutes late
1340 left MSP on time 11:50 arrived CHI 8:02 48 minutes late

DAY 2 - - -
1333 left CHI on time 11:05 arrived MSP 6:54 25 minutes late
1340 left MSP on time 11:50 arrived CHI 7:59 45 minutes late

A small improvement

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Be interesting to see where the delays are. New service you would think the host would try extra hard, if just for the press reports.

 

[Harmon Shay]

That's what I thought. It should be a simple matter of adding-separating Borealis to/from one of the two Hiawatha sets.

 

[daybeers]

Be interesting to see where the delays are. New service you would think the host would try extra hard, if just for the press reports.

Lol they couldn't care less.

 

[TransitTyrant]

I really don’t think the Milwaukee predicament is much of an issue. It’s almost impossible to totally fill a train the whole length of the route. If it becomes concerning to the states involved, they will employ the same sort of fare management that Amtrak employs for the LD trains that sell space on the on the NEC, pay to add cars, or take one of many cheaper, less time consuming, actions possible . Cutting cars on a corridor train is, I think, total overkill. Next commuter trains will be cutting cars.

Cutting cars adds too much time to the schedule. The goal should be to get this train as fast as possible to make it more competitive with cars. Adding more service is something that’s already being studied.

 

[Amtrak25]

It is not cutting and adding cars. VIA Rail runs combined "J" trains and splits/merges them every day at Brockville and Hervey, and does that in 10 minutes. No need to waste train miles and crew time. The last couple of days, they are running 25 - 45 minutes late. Focus on why that is, not running a dumbed down operation.

This is just another case of Amtrakian no-can-do-here and that trains are airplanes to be totally yield managed.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

It is not cutting and adding cars. VIA Rail runs combined "J" trains and splits/merges them every day at Brockville and Hervey, and does that in 10 minutes. No need to waste train miles and crew time. The last couple of days, they are running 25 - 45 minutes late. Focus on why that is, not running a dumbed down operation.

This is just another case of Amtrakian no-can-do-here and that trains are airplanes to be totally yield managed.

If I understand what they are doing at Via, they are splitting a train, not dropping cars which would have to be moved out of the way and stored. Not sure that's actually possible at Milwaukee.

 

[Grooviness]

Quaint article from Portage, Wisconsin.

https://wiscnews.com/news/local/por...cle_e4e92f92-178f-11ef-a97e-570eed06db7d.html

 

[jis]

Quaint article from Portage, Wisconsin.

https://wiscnews.com/news/local/por...cle_e4e92f92-178f-11ef-a97e-570eed06db7d.html

At about 0:25 in the video attached to the article one can see RPA's Jim Matthews sitting in an aisle seat talking to Amit Bose, the FRA Administrator who is sitting in the window seat, out of sight.

I have met Amit Bose several times. He is a fellow Bengali and we have some good chats in our mother tongue when we meet.

 

[keelhauled]

That's what I thought. It should be a simple matter of adding-separating Borealis to/from one of the two Hiawatha sets.

There is no adding or separating happening. It is a single trainset that goes from CHI-MSP and vice versa.

 

[jis]

There is no adding or separating happening. It is a single trainset that goes from CHI-MSP and vice versa.

Actually two train sets are necessary to run this service daily, but yes, no adding removing cars in Milwaukee.

 

[WWW]

The inaugural trip was operated with one locomotive - - -
So far the trips yesterday and today are operated with a PUSH-PULL consist - - -
The Business class car being at either end of the consist as I have observed - - -
Apparently the result is no need to WYE the train ?
Wonder about seats facing forward in that case ?

At 4:12 pm passed Great Spirit Bluff Cam north of La Crosse -
Consist - L C C C C B L

 

[WWW]

Statistics update:
DAY 1 - - -
1333 left CHI on time 11:05 arrived MSP 7:03 34 minutes late
1340 left MSP on time 11:50 arrived CHI 8:02 48 minutes late
DAY 2 - - -
1333 left CHI on time 11:05 arrived MSP 6:54 25 minutes late
1340 left MSP on time 11:50 arrived CHI 7:59 45 minutes late
A small improvement

DAY 3 - - -
1333 left CHI on time 11:05 arrived MSP 7:53 1HR 24 MINUTES LATE ***
1340 left MSP on time 11:50 arrived CHI 7:51 37 minutes late

*** 1333 very LATE due to CP freight traffic congestion in the SPUD WYE
extensive all the way through to St. Paul Park/Newport

 

[Amtrak25]

So much for better reliability than the Empire Builder.

 

[moselman66]

This morning (Friday 5/24) has some interesting availability for today on amtrak.com

Northbound Borealis
CHI-MKE sold out
CHI-MSP 8 or more seats available

Southbound Borealis
MSP-CHI 8 or more seats available
MKE-CHI 1 seat left

Are they blocking inventory on the CHI-MKE / MKE-CHI segments to allocate capacity to points west? Or is something else going on here?

I know some are concerned that the local CHI-MKE / MKE-CHI segements selling out will stunt traffic upline on the Borealis -- we shall see if this happens often or not. Holiday peak trains do sometimes sell out on the Hiawatha so I'm not so sure this situation will be common as some worry. But if they are blocking inventory for upline passengers to book I still question that it makes sense to continue to hold it for same-day sales. It's not impossible for there to be same-day CHI-MSP travel booked, but a large portion of CHI-MKE books same day and if thru inventory has been held it would make sense to release it.

 

[TransitTyrant]

It is not cutting and adding cars. VIA Rail runs combined "J" trains and splits/merges them every day at Brockville and Hervey, and does that in 10 minutes. No need to waste train miles and crew time. The last couple of days, they are running 25 - 45 minutes late. Focus on why that is, not running a dumbed down operation.

This is just another case of Amtrakian no-can-do-here and that trains are airplanes to be totally yield managed.

Adding a whole other train consist plus the crew needed to staff it would be an extremely expensive endeavor. If it really becomes an issue WisDOT can push Amtrak to add more coaches to the train.

 

[jis]

Adding a whole other train consist plus the crew needed to staff it would be an extremely expensive endeavor. If it really becomes an issue WisDOT can push Amtrak to add more coaches to the train.

I would imagine that the sponsoring state(s) would monitor the demand level and either add cars to the existing trains or add a new train to meet the demand, whatever works the best.

 

[moselman66]

This morning (Friday 5/24) has some interesting availability for today on amtrak.com

Northbound Borealis
CHI-MKE sold out
CHI-MSP 8 or more seats available

Southbound Borealis
MSP-CHI 8 or more seats available
MKE-CHI 1 seat left

Are they blocking inventory on the CHI-MKE / MKE-CHI segments to allocate capacity to points west? Or is something else going on here?

I know some are concerned that the local CHI-MKE / MKE-CHI segements selling out will stunt traffic upline on the Borealis -- we shall see if this happens often or not. Holiday peak trains do sometimes sell out on the Hiawatha so I'm not so sure this situation will be common as some worry. But if they are blocking inventory for upline passengers to book I still question that it makes sense to continue to hold it for same-day sales. It's not impossible for there to be same-day CHI-MSP travel booked, but a large portion of CHI-MKE books same day and if thru inventory has been held it would make sense to release it.

And now a few hours later CHI-MKE and MKE-CHI on Borealis are not sold out and available for 8+ tickets each, just as CHI-(MKE)-MSP and MSP-(MKE)-CHI both are. So maybe a glitch, or maybe they do "hold" inventory for upline stations but have released it now for local sale between CHI/MKE.

 

[OmahaRoad]

Interesting, Moselman! I am now wondering if they are holding up until close to the departure times of both trains (especially the MSP-CHI train which leaves roughly an hour after you posted). But as others have said, I am certain they will add another car if needed. How much rigamarole with Amtrak is it to add another passenger car for limited periods of time, say at major holidays and travel weekends should the Borealis be consistently sold out at those times?

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Interesting, Moselman! I am now wondering if they are holding up until close to the departure times of both trains (especially the MSP-CHI train which leaves roughly an hour after you posted). But as others have said, I am certain they will add another car if needed. How much rigamarole with Amtrak is it to add another passenger car for limited periods of time, say at major holidays and travel weekends should the Borealis be consistently sold out at those times?

Require equipment.
Require effort.

Both is lacking at times.