Passenger Trains > Flip the Empire Builder schedule?

I was looking at an old January 1978 Amtrak schedule for the combined Empire Builder/North Coast Hiawatha. It occurred to me, that maybe as a stop gap measure, Amtrak should consider running the train between the Twin Cities and Chicago overnight. That way, you would still make all connections in Chicago. Obviously, not an ideal solution, and certainly not good for the Chicago, Milwaukee, Twin Cities corridor traffic. Gosh, don't you think the often delayed train has become undependable for that segment now anyway?. I also understand this schedule probably wouldn't be good for the all important Summer Glacier Park stops. On the other hand, the station times for the Bakken oil field workers would still be decent. I honestly don't know how you keep running the train late like it has been, and pretend to believe it's marketable. Too many vouchers, too many Chicago trains held for connections, substitute busses, the list goes on and on. If the freight train traffic delays are here to stay, then some sort of schedule adjustment should be considered. Time to think outside the box.

That's what they did with the "Sunset" some years ago when schedule reliability went haywire: just have AMTRAK #1 leave Los Angeles eight hours earlier (at 2:30 PM eastbound). That was a very nice opportunity for those of us living in Yuma, Arizona, because on the rare occasions #1(eastbound) was on time, it became possible to have dinner in the diner leaving Yuma. The suggestion of overnighting the "Builder" between Minneapolis/Chicago and reverse deserves consideration. We could bring back the old Milwaukee Road "Pioneer Limited," a very fine train which fell just a little short of its 100th birthday when it was finally cancelled. Obviously some major schedule adjustments for the "Builder" are very necessary, for many reasons.

Easier said than done without making some pretty awful endpoint times.

Say they extend the running time eastbound 2 hours, which is all they can do with 5 sets of equipment, and still make equipment turns, depart Chicago and the west Coast 9 hours later than present, and arrive Chicago 11 hours later.

It would leave Chicago 11pm, Glacier Park 4am, arrive west coast at 730pm
Depart west coast 130am, arrive Chicago 3am.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Easier said than done without making some pretty
> awful endpoint times.
>
> Say they extend the running time eastbound 2
> hours, which is all they can do with 5 sets of
> equipment, and still make equipment turns, depart
> Chicago and the west Coast 9 hours later than
> present, and arrive Chicago 11 hours later.
>
> It would leave Chicago 11pm, Glacier Park 4am,
> arrive west coast at 730pm
> Depart west coast 130am, arrive Chicago 3am.


They have been putting people off at Whitefish and Glacier Park at some pretty terrible times for the last year anyway.

Running the "Builder" overnight would have one effect: The substantial CHI-MSP local traffic would disappear.
There are several colleges on 7 and 8's route, UW-Madison via the Columbus stop, UW-La Crosse, Winona State
University and St. Mary's University of Minnesota at Winona (both with substantial numbers of students from the
Chicago area), Carleton and St. Olaf via the Red Wing stop, and of course Concordia, St. Thomas, Augsburg,
Macalaster, the University of Minnesota and many others at the MSP stop. One of the reasons the North Coast
Hiawatha failed may have been in part to the scheduling over this segment, as it was for the Northstar
(MSP - Duluth at night at one time operating to Chicago - with slim patronage, overnight). I am convinced
the Chicago - Twin Cities corridor would now support at least one additional train to supplement an
"on time" Empire Builder. College students use the train (when they are able) but will choose other modes
when delays as we are seeing delay their trips home.