Passenger Trains > Hiawatha Service Changes/New Thruway bus to MSP

All Hiawatha trains had slight adjustments to their running times in the new TTs. All had 10 minutes or more added to their running times between Chicago and Milwaukee (up to 1:39 for most), and the busy 605am Milwaukee-Chicago train now takes 1:52 to run the 86 miles between the two cities (The "real" Hiawatha trains in the 40s and 50s ran it in 70-75 minutes).

In addition, a new Thruway bus appears to run between Milwaukee and MPS, eastbound departing MSP at 805am (15 minutes after the Builder) and connecting with a Hiawatha train in Milwaukee. Westbound, it leaves Milwaukee at 1005am after a connection from a Chicago Hiawatha train.

Any idea WHY all this time was added? Milwaukee Road did 85 miles in 85 minutes, although likely with no intermemdiate stops, such as the three allowed now for many trains.

I'll also admit this is quite odd, as I thought the Hiawatha's were a leader in OTP too! Does this have anything to do with planned trackwork or Amtrak and Metra trying to get "slots" into Chicago. Hopefully Chicago is not getting as bad as NYC with getting commuter trains from the burbs into the city and vice versa! I know the Empire Builder often gets "slowed down" if it sort of misses it "slot" eastbound in getting from Milwaukee to Chicago. This has happened on nearly all of my Empire Builder trains - the famous PA announcement that "our slower speed is on account of the fact that we are currently behind a Metra commuter train, we apologize for this delay and expect an arrival time into Chicago at X:XX p.m."

I'm sure this padding was added to make the "On Time" record look better. It's an old Amtrak "con-artist" trick. Mr. Boardman will be criticized for a poor on-time record, so time is added until most trains make it "on time". I notice that even the Surfliners are about 15" slower than SantaFe trains of the mid-fifties, despite all the money Calif. has put into those tracks.

In all of this, the passenger riding those slower trains is never considered, and little attention is paid to how a slower trains becomes uncompetitive in the public's mind.

But don't despair. When the HSR money gets spent, this will leap-frog train speeds significantly, and on routes like Chicago-Milwaukee, we can forget "underhanded" padding just to make trains "seem like" they arrive on time.

The additional 10 minutes running time was added during the last few weeks due to the installation of welded rail by the Canadian Pacific. Effective 10/31/09 the running time reverts back to 1'29" like it has been for the last few years. (The schedules of the two trains that enter Metra territory during the morning & evening rush hour will still have slightly longer schedule due to train congestion) The adding of an extra 10 minutes of running time has been done whenever Metra or Canadian Pacific does any major track work between Chicago & Milwaukee, I think it has been done three separate times this year.

Just got the new Fall/Winter Amtrak schedule, and it still shows the 1:29 running times. So guess it is just for trackwork as the previous poster stated.