Amtrak Empire Builder 2nd Daily Frequency Chicago - St Paul

Either "Arrowhead" or "North Star" would be apropos. Both former Amtrak Trains that served Minneapolis and/or Duluth.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:04 am Going through this...

• Afternoon Hiawatha
• Afternoon Twin Cities Zephyr
• Bat
• Chicago Special
• Day/Eastern Express
• Morning Zephyr
• Varsity

You gave an idea of Chicago express and Minneapolis express. Or use Special instead of express?

How about the Grain Belt special to honor their tasty beer?

Per Wiki it looks like it might be called the Great River or Borealis.

It is time for us railfans trying to revive old train / route names. The general public has no idea what some of these proposed names mean. It might also speed up calls to reservations
1. IMO Zephyr needs to be assigned to the CHI west all the way to regionals in southern Illinois.
2. Call it the Minneapolis HIA and Chicago HIA.
3. Then the various trains can be called Milwaukee HIA in CHI and train.
4. AT MKE it will either be Minneapolis HIAS or CHI HIA
5. The station boards need to also list destination. That will somewhat mitigate the problem of passengers boarding wrong train.

It seems unscientifically that certain names cause more new passengers. Look at Carolinian, Piedmont, If it takes 2 lines on PID boards so be it. EX. at CHI one-line MKE HIA another line for same train MSP HIA.

So, in NOL as EX
1. It should be Houston - LAX sunset:
2. BHM / ATL & NY Crescent.
3. Them Mobile _________
4. Baton Rouge __________

These names need wide coverage ads that are local in nature.

west point wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 1:49 pm It is time for us railfans trying to revive old train / route names. The general public has no idea what some of these proposed names mean.

I've often thought that some sort of naming convention would help the traveling public identify the services and offerings better. IE "___-Rocket" would signifiy a fast premium service making limited stops. So perhaps each corridor would have1-2 rockets per day with a business class car and less stops. Then "___-Limited" would denote long distance trains making lots of stops and have sleeper cars.

west point wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 1:49 pm These names need wide coverage ads that are local in nature.

Of course this leads to my next question, "whatever does the marketing department really do with their time?". You can publicize all you want, but if you can't back up the glamour of your advertising with substantive reliable service, it's all kind of silly. I've often thought that they should RIF the entire marketing and advertising department and use that funding for staff service level training. IE "here is where we board" and "this is how we board" and "how to train the detroit and Chicago station staff not to be as rude as possible".

Wouldn't it make more sense and be as straightforward as possible just to name it the Twin Cities? Alternatively, in recognition of both endpoints it could be the Windy Gopher.

I think Twin Cities would work.

If would be pretty nifty if they use May 11th, National Train day as the date to announce this trains name and start date. I was on a Builder this weekend and unlike previous questions to crew about this train there was now and answer of 'soon'

Borealis is the confirmed name. Service to start May 21, via an Amtrak official Facebook post.

that caught me by Surprise.....
you can already book on it. The prices are half the Empire Builder too. looks like $33 from Winona to Chicago and back. I hope this train has fixed fares like the Hiawatha.