Passenger Trains > 850/851 Hoosier State rare mileage Sunday

Well, a mile or two. Due to UP trackwork at Thornton Jct, 850/851 are suppose to detour via the CN and Harvey, then the route of the Carbondale trains on into CUS. Can get a few rare miles in anyway. 851 still has a few high bucket fare seats, 850 shows sold out. Take 851 up, then come back on Megabus or SWA! Thanks to a friend at Amtrak for this info.

This is the route this train should be taking every day....

Instead of trying to weave its way through Yard Center, some of Chicago's most depressing neighborhoods and across several busy interlockings at speeds rarely over (and often under) 40 MPH, you would have a quick (65 MPH), grade-separated ride along the lakefront.

The real hangup to this routing is the need to rearrange and power up the crossovers at the "top of the hill", i.e. on the IC end of the connection. Last I looked (admittedly a couple of years ago) it dumps you out onto a 10 MPH running track (?Thoroughfare 4?) and you have to go a ways north to access the signaled mains via two sets of hand-throw crossovers.

Even with the current backup move off the Air Line (or backing in off the ex-GM&O at CP Cermak) it would probably lop 20-30 minutes off the running time. If the CREATE program ever gets going to the point where the Grand Crossing connection gets built, even more time can be saved, bringing the CHI-IND "service" (term applied somewhat loosely) to the brink of being a viable transportatioh option instead of being a shop train that allows passengers.

NZ

Never ceases to amaze me how Amtrak is perfectly content with sold out short haul trains (i.e. Maple Leaf #63 every single day except Sunday all summer), too stubborn to scrap up one coach, then cries they're short operating revenues. For 850/851, they could have borrowed a damned METRA Gallery car on Saturday nite/Sunday morning, if nothing else. They'd rather sulk than solve problems.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/09 07:26 by joemvcnj.

I always had a hard time squaring the 100-MPH speeds of IC's "Panama" and "City of New Orleans" with the railroad's apparent fondness for switchtenders (in addition to the "Harvey switchtender", there is one at 11th place on the Metra Electric line, and switchtenders used to handle South Junction in Memphis as well as the place in Jackson (forget the name) where the Grenada and Yazoo districts came back together.

But if somebody will pay to remote the CN connection at Harvey (maybe CN will do it themselves, since they now own both ends), and if the Grand Junction connection ever gets built, this is certainly the preferred route for both "Cardinal" and "Hoosier State".

These trains have never had a decent entrance to Chicago since the start of the "Indiana Tango" early in Amtrak's tenure. The old NYC from Kankakee through Lafayette deteriorated to the point that it was virtually unusable, and there has never really been another good alternative that didn't bypass Indianapolis. Part of the cause was Conrail's lack of interest in (short haul) north-south service. But now with the $8 billion in HSR money, maybe there are finally the resources to do something about it.

rresor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But if somebody will pay to remote the CN
> connection at Harvey (maybe CN will do it
> themselves, since they now own both ends), and if
> the Grand Junction connection ever gets built,
> this is certainly the preferred route for both
> "Cardinal" and "Hoosier State".
>
Probably not the CN...they have little reason to go north from Harvey off the GTW now that they own the J. Right after buying the IC, they put in powered-up connections off the GTW to the south on the IC toward Moyers/Markham.

Anything that will help Amtrak will likely have to paid for out of the public trough.

NZ

The SC&S was a good route during the early '80s, but fell victim to Conrail not needing it and Amtrak not being able to afford it. Others are absolutely correct that the CN route is the way to go; it just needs the power switch and upgrading of the 10 mph industrial track. Perhaps this is part of CREATE; I don't know.

This is covered by the Feb 1999!! NARP newsletter. Thornton Junction to north of Harvey. 1999!!!!! Needs to happen along with GRAND CROSSING . I think CREATE will get this done. We keep pushing for it. Really... 4 hours Indy to Chicago. Like the BUS?!!! Via Lafayette.

Update...detour may or may not happen. I road 51 north and 50 south Saturday and heard several stories. BTW, PO51-25 was 18 minutes hot into CUS, PO50-26 was 3 minutes early into Cincinnati. Monon has had quite a bit of trackwork done yet still has a dozen or so slow orders (worst north of Chalmers along 231, a 30MPH SO for about 4 miles on very bumpy track. Was 79MPH just 9 years ago.) Decent ride, but still a far cry from what it should be.