That hurts my eyes.GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑Apr 28, 2023…Amtrack…
How is it that it's the year of our lord of 2023 and we are calling a 110mph train "high speed".
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At least for the QC service, as I understand it, it's been mostly the railroad dragging their feet. I think it's Iowa Interstate and there's some connection that needs to be built, but that's on hold until IDOT/Amtrak get an agreement with IAIS.PeterXCV wrote: ↑Apr 28, 2023It's been amazing how IDOT has maintained that Amtrak service to Rockford and the Quad Cities is like 2 years away for over 10 years.
Moline in the Quad Cities has a train station, sort of. It just needs a platform... and service. It was built as part of a hotel conversion and expansion of an old warehouse. The hotel currently uses it as an event space. Now that I think about it, Moline, IL and Charlotte, NC have opposite problems.quincunx wrote: ↑Apr 28, 2023Rockford, Peoria, and Quad Cities don't, though they have their bus service.
Rockford was funded, right? Not sure what the status of that is.
Tomorrow the 110mph starts. But they are not changing timetables yet.
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2 questions ( im sure these have been covered)
1) Has the STL to chicago started using the new engines? Did this include new passenger vechicles as well or just the new engines?
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/veh ... om-siemens
2) IF they get full 110 MPH what will the timetables drop to? I assume it wont move it dramatically?
1) Has the STL to chicago started using the new engines? Did this include new passenger vechicles as well or just the new engines?
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/veh ... om-siemens
2) IF they get full 110 MPH what will the timetables drop to? I assume it wont move it dramatically?
New engines were put into service starting in 2017. New cars last year.
Amtrak Selling a $1M Private Car You Can Hook to Any Train
https://jalopnik.com/amtrak-million-dollar-private-train-car-1850396163
https://jalopnik.com/amtrak-million-dollar-private-train-car-1850396163
^ And this has to do with public passenger rail in the Midwest how?
Amtrak isn’t even selling the car lol. Do you even read the nonsensical links you spam threads with here?
Amtrak isn’t even selling the car lol. Do you even read the nonsensical links you spam threads with here?
Press release from Amtrak: 110 mph Schedules Coming for Amtrak Chicago-St. Louis Corridor
They won't adjust time tables for "several weeks".
Also, a few months late but I don't think this has been posted yet. The latest newsletter from the rail work going on in Springfield, IL: Newsletter 6
I didn't know about the new ROW, phase 6B (I thought there was going to be an awkward sharp turn at N Grand & N 15th).
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springfieldilrailphases by A P, on Flickr
New ROW shown in blue here:
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springfieldilrailnewrow by A P, on Flickr
The current Amtrak route in shown in red. This will be shifted to blue south of the junction. After this project, I think the Amtrak route will be completely grade separated through Springfield, IL.
The old right of way will be abandoned and hopefully adapted to a linear park. There's one conceptual rendering shown in the newsletter. They're seeking funding.
They won't adjust time tables for "several weeks".
Also, a few months late but I don't think this has been posted yet. The latest newsletter from the rail work going on in Springfield, IL: Newsletter 6
I didn't know about the new ROW, phase 6B (I thought there was going to be an awkward sharp turn at N Grand & N 15th).
springfieldilrailphases by A P, on Flickr
New ROW shown in blue here:
springfieldilrailnewrow by A P, on Flickr
The current Amtrak route in shown in red. This will be shifted to blue south of the junction. After this project, I think the Amtrak route will be completely grade separated through Springfield, IL.
The old right of way will be abandoned and hopefully adapted to a linear park. There's one conceptual rendering shown in the newsletter. They're seeking funding.
Nice! I wasn’t expecting a press release this month. If my math is correct, this should bring the Lincoln Service from between 5 and 5.5 hours down to between 4.5 to 5.aprice wrote:Press release from Amtrak: 110 mph Schedules Coming for Amtrak Chicago-St. Louis Corridor
They won't adjust time tables for "several weeks".
I understood the plan was always to go though the IEPA building site.aprice wrote: ↑May 03, 2023I didn't know about the new ROW, phase 6B (I thought there was going to be an awkward sharp turn at N Grand & N 15th).
It doesn't sound like itAfter this project, I think the Amtrak route will be completely grade separated through Springfield, IL.
reconstructed at-grade crossings at Washington Street and Capitol Avenue, and a new at-grade pedestrian crossing at Monroe Street.
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4.5 hrs is what I remember hearing ten years ago.addxb2 wrote: ↑May 03, 2023Nice! I wasn’t expecting a press release this month. If my math is correct, this should bring the Lincoln Service from between 5 and 5.5 hours down to between 4.5 to 5.aprice wrote:Press release from Amtrak: 110 mph Schedules Coming for Amtrak Chicago-St. Louis Corridor
They won't adjust time tables for "several weeks".
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It sounds like this is going to benefit the commute time from St. Louis to Chicago, but, out of curiosity, do you guys feel it will also benefit the city of Springfield?
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I gotta think Springfield to Chicago is huge for IL. Lots of state government link to Chicago land. IF they can make the service reliably on time.RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑May 03, 2023It sounds like this is going to benefit the commute time from St. Louis to Chicago, but, out of curiosity, do you guys feel it will also benefit the city of Springfield?
Not sure how much it helps Springfield as a town. Certainly more attractive for businesses than Decatur or Peoria with no service though. I don't imagine there is a ton of tourism traffic into Springfield and what is i assume most is by car but every little bit helps there as well.
I remember a big group of people from Alton coming back from a day trip, but it was partly interrupted by the Texas Eagle being late in the morning.
Again i lament how in the middle of things the 3rd street station is vs the off to the side the 10th St location will be.
Again i lament how in the middle of things the 3rd street station is vs the off to the side the 10th St location will be.
Hadn't seen these posted before. The new station under construction in Springfield looks pretty great.
https://sangamonil.gov/thehub/home
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https://sangamonil.gov/thehub/home
Plus Joliet to Chicago. Both segments are sub 30mph crawls and frequent freight conflicts.framer wrote: ↑May 03, 2023All of this is great, but the main problem remains Downtown to Alton.
I guess my hope is this stirs the conversation to fix these bottlenecks. Should only take 10-20 years.
^ At the very least on the STL side the Merchants Bridge bottleneck has been fixed and the MacArthur's Broadway truss downtown is currently being modernized and rebuilt.
There was also a previous post here about the Chicago alignment shifting to a Metra corridor between Joliet and downtown which would be far friendlier to Amtrak than the existing corridor into Chicago. Not sure what's going on with that though. Maybe AP could provide an update. A shift to Metra ROW would pretty much eliminate freight conflicts and would speed things up quite a bit in the Chicagoland area.
Edit: Here is that post. Looks like improvements are also on deck around Chicago Union Station.
There was also a previous post here about the Chicago alignment shifting to a Metra corridor between Joliet and downtown which would be far friendlier to Amtrak than the existing corridor into Chicago. Not sure what's going on with that though. Maybe AP could provide an update. A shift to Metra ROW would pretty much eliminate freight conflicts and would speed things up quite a bit in the Chicagoland area.
Edit: Here is that post. Looks like improvements are also on deck around Chicago Union Station.
aprice wrote:It's looking increasingly likely that Lincoln Service will be rerouted in greater Chicago. The re-route isn't the worst. This is mostly being done to shift the service to the much more Amtrak friendly Metra owned tracks. It's unfortunate the lengths Amtrak has to go through to wrestle with freight companies who could do incredible things for passenger rail in this country but won't.
The connection between the new and current ROWs already exists in Joliet but a new platform would need to be built. There's space for a new platform but how it would connect to their relatively new station isn't clear.
This is part of a much larger set of improvements sought for Chicago Union Station which includes better thru-running. Despite Chicago Union Station being a perfect fit for thru running, it's actually two terminal setups facing each other. There's three tracks on the east end that do thru run but neither Amtrak or Metra are able to use them, I think this is the Mail platform mentioned in the High Speed Rail Alliance link.
^^ Springfield has good opportunity with this investment. A very impressive look that will hopefully be matched by impressive land use Downtown. It’s be great to have a second metropolis downtown under an hour from STL.
^ my partner and I probably have 100 trips between St. Louis and Chicago between us. I would guess less than 10 have been delayed in either Chicago or St. Louis suburbs.
That being said, improvements in Chicago area have already been identified and are partially funded or under construction.
CREATE Program Status: https://createprogram.wpenginepowered.c ... us_map.pdf
Union Station Redevelopment: https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/ne ... s-project/
^ my partner and I probably have 100 trips between St. Louis and Chicago between us. I would guess less than 10 have been delayed in either Chicago or St. Louis suburbs.
That being said, improvements in Chicago area have already been identified and are partially funded or under construction.
CREATE Program Status: https://createprogram.wpenginepowered.c ... us_map.pdf
Union Station Redevelopment: https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/ne ... s-project/
^ I always thought Normal did a nice job around their new station. Walkable, lots of older storefronts and some new construction. There are some surface lots that could make for some nice infill. Blends pretty seamlessly into ISU's campus too.
