Chicago - Raleigh and Charlotte Service

Not a real proposal, just a map:

Way in the future. Better to get Chicago - Atlanta and connect NC passengers in ATL.

Way in the future. Better to get Chicago - Atlanta and connect NC passengers in ATL. IMO everything in the South east depends on getting a proper station in ATL. To use an airline phrase " You can get from anywhere to anywhere as long as you connect at Atlanta airport"

west point wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2024 9:33 am Way in the future. Better to get Chicago - Atlanta and connect NC passengers in ATL. IMO everything in the South east depends on getting a proper station in ATL. To use an airline phrase " You can get from anywhere to anywhere as long as you connect at Atlanta airport"

Or, pre-pandemic and train related, "To get from NYC to anywhere, change trains at Jamaica."

Hmmm... Chicago to Atlanta... Okay, Hooiser State line down to Indianapolis, then the Louisville & Indiana down to Louisville. CSX Mainline Subdiv through Louisville, Elizabethtown, BOwling Green, to Nashville... Chattanouga subdiv to said place, down the W&A subdiv to Marietta and then the Atlanta Terminal Subdivision to Atlanta proper... which if you route through Macon and and get some more interlocks installed by NS in Jesup, you can do Chicago to Miami.

I think that Atlanta as a hub is only really true for Delta Air Lines, which happens to be headquartered at that airport in Atlanta. In the 16 years I've been flying for work, the only time I changed flights in Atlanta was traveling overseas. But I feel as my father was fond of saying "All flights to Hell change in Atlanta."

I've taken the single car Raleigh-Chicago service that Amtrak offered prior to equipping the Capitol Limited with Superliners. Unless I had some reason to think there is a significant traffic between NC and other points on the Cardinal route west of Clifton Forge, I would test the viability of single seat services between Chicago and Charlotte, Raleigh, and points south by adding a transition sleeper to the Capitol Limited and carrying single level cars off the Silver Star and Crescent on the Capitol Limited, switching cars in Washington.

RandallW wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2024 10:44 am I think that Atlanta as a hub is only really true for Delta Air Lines, which happens to be headquartered at that airport in Atlanta. In the 16 years I've been flying for work, the only time I changed flights in Atlanta was traveling overseas. But I feel as my father was fond of saying "All flights to Hell change in Atlanta."

Mr. Randall W, you wouldn't think of an IND/KIND-JBG/FAJS routing as going through KATL, but DL serves it -and is the only carrier so doing..

A dear friend of over forty years standing is Executive Director of an Indianapolis Not for Profit adoption agency that holds reciprocal licensure with one in Johannesburg. As such, she gets to go down there every couple of years. She used to fly SA, but they "took off" from North America leaving her with a fistful of useless points. So she now uses DL. What the heck, DL as good as owns KATL.

But getting back to the rails lest this missive gets killed, Atlanta, not being on any kind of waterway navigable by anything much beyond a canoe, it came to be the South's premier city in great part thanks to the railroads. You'd think with that heritage, there would be more than the "token one a day" there. We must acknowledge that so far as Atlanta is concerned it's "Daddy, what's a passenger train?" country.

This route is ridiculous, but I would take 2-3 round trips per year from end to end if it actually existed. Surely I alone am enough for Amtrak to get moving on this…

There is already a Chicago to Raleigh service if you are willing to transfer trains.
#1 CHI to NUC on Lake Shore Limited, NYC to RAL on Carolinian or Silver Star
#2 CHI to WAS on Capital Limited, WAS to RAL on Carolinian or Silver Star
#3 CHI to WAS on Cardinal, WAS to RAL on Carolinian or Silver Star

There is no way to do CHI to CLT that does not put a passenger overnight in Charlottesville VA, DC, or NYC, or accepting a 2:30 AM arrival in Charlotte on the Crescent (or a 5:00 AM departure from CLT in the other direction), and unless the passenger is willing to overnight in DC or NYC, connecting to or from any service to or from Chicago with the Carolinian is out.

Since the Charlotte MSA is 1.3 million more people than the Raleigh MSA, I'd concentrate on making any through service that terminated in NC go to Charlotte and not to Raleigh (now running a Miami-Chicago through service that just happened to serve Raleigh would capture that market).

Now that's an idea. There's always some nostalgia on the dearly-departed Floridian.

So in this map you have two incredibly vibrant areas - the midwest and the Piedmont - connected through a morass of nothing between Lynchburg and Cinci.

Why not focus on more services intra-carolinas and Georgia? Maybe loop in Atlanta, Knoxville, Chattanooga, BHM... Those areas are all growing rapidly and congestion is a thing. A BHM-ATL train would be brilliant.

As fun as this crayon looks to this NC resident, I have to agree. Build out a strong Midwest network reaching Louisville and Lexington, and a Southeast network that reaches Nashville and Knoxville. Then, connecting the two becomes much more compelling.