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I understood the post very well (I'm fluent in English), and that was not what the other party said.

mod note:

EASY FELLAS!!!

I have a trip booked at the end of this month to travel Chicago - Port Huron , then Port Huron - Flint , bus to Pontiac then via the Wolverine back into Chicago.

Yesterday I recieved an email advising of some retimings (Blue Water runs an hour later to Port Huron and departs an hour earlier). What they didn't mention is that train 353 from Pontiac doesn't run , and that there is an "extra" train 359 at 1418 instead. The work is supposed to run from 19th May until 31st August , but Amtrak seem to want to guard the information as if it was a big secret.

My question is , does anybody know if these trains are actually going to be trains or replacement busses? I assume that this is another phase of the Michigan high speed work , but I don't especially want to go all that way on a bus.

Many thanks

'Busteetoots' are generally numbered 3XXX, so it would appear that Amtrak intends to operate a 'train', i.e. vars operating atop rails with a locomotive providing power for such.

But lest we forget, we Are dealing,with a puzzle palace located at 60 Mass..

Supaned wrote:I have a trip booked at the end of this month to travel Chicago - Port Huron , then Port Huron - Flint , bus to Pontiac then via the Wolverine back into Chicago.

Yesterday I recieved an email advising of some retimings (Blue Water runs an hour later to Port Huron and departs an hour earlier). What they didn't mention is that train 353 from Pontiac doesn't run , and that there is an "extra" train 359 at 1418 instead. The work is supposed to run from 19th May until 31st August , but Amtrak seem to want to guard the information as if it was a big secret.

My question is , does anybody know if these trains are actually going to be trains or replacement busses? I assume that this is another phase of the Michigan high speed work , but I don't especially want to go all that way on a bus.

Many thanks

Amtrak's offering Business Class and advertising cafe service. Further, the timing is consistent with the other Wolverines and Amtrak has used #359 on Wolverine "extras" (Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day service) before. It's not a bus.

Thanks for those replies.

Looking further into it, there is also a train 358 to Pontiac , whereas 352 is also missing from the lineup. As 358/359 are the only trains shown with a quiet car , I presume these are the same train sets which will lay over at Pontiac.

I guess by replacing 352/353 with later runs , it allows a bigger window to do the work needed.

Is Amtrak starting work on getting 110 mph speeds extended to east of Kalamazoo? When they get the majority of that Michigan stretch up to 110, wow, that'll be quite a nice corridor! Much more "bang for the buck" than with new HSR efforts like that in California, at least thus far!

Amtrak now has a press release that features the temporary tt as an attachment. WOLVERINE #359 runs Mon-Sat. 3'43" later than #353, which runs Sun. only during the 5/19-8/31 period. Also #352 runs Sun. only and #358 runs daily 2 hrs later than #352. Apparently the idea is to allow M/W some uninterrupted time after #350 and #351 (which runs 45" earlier) clear the work areas. Will be interested in anyone knows where the work areas are and what the nature of the work is.
BTW it looks as if MI will get the Dearborn-Kalamazoo segment up to speed long before IL will the CHI-STL former GM&O line.

Andy

Here is a link to the press release and modified schedules immediately noted by Mr. Tower:

http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/35/467/Amtr ... 14-052.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mr. Johnson, I doubt if 110mph operation will come that easily after one summer maintenance period; color one's self lucky if 79 is permitted and that the existing schedules will again be reliable, which Mr. Lustig's Train Performance reports suggest is hardly the case.

Not to disparage the present level of performance, but in the last 15 days:

Of 45 trains each way, there have been 2 westbounds and 5 eastbounds that arrived OT.

Well,

I'm back from my travels around Michigan (and beyond) - certainly the re-timings seemed to work fine , with no major delays encountered - we could see stacks of new ties in places and around BO tower in Kalamazoo new signals were in position (although covered up).

The less said about our experiences on the Late Shore Limited , however , the better.

Im guessing you had the FULL CSX treatment...

It's been a rough week for the Wolverine. This morning one person (a local station is reporting a child) was killed by westbound 353 in Wayne, between Dearborn and Ann Arbor:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/m ... /19449845/
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/27461 ... t-in-wayne

On Thursday, eastbound 352 struck and killed a trespasser in Canton (also between Ann Arbor and Dearborn). According the article, the incident appeared to be intentional by the trespasser:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index ... _in_f.html

And on Tuesday, 3 young adults were killed when the driver of their vehicle drove around the gates in Kalamazoo.:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/ind ... suv_c.html
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/ind ... ctims.html

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, and especially to the Amtrak employees and passengers involved.

My heart goes out to the crews and families & friends of the deceased. There is never any reason for these things to happen, and of course the train crew bears the most of the emotional toll. Hard for me to not get angry at people who don't respect the tracks enough to stay clear in these situations, but what can you do? The railroads and streetcar/traction systems have been around long enough that people should know better. Even for those in so much pain they feel the need to end it all, as tragic as that is, why involve others in this way? All it does is create trauma and pain for others, including any friends and family of the departed. I just really hope those affected by these incidents find peace and are able to move on in their lives.

This trackwork continues into this year - and it has made using Wolverines unacceptable for me.

Possibly, I'll be going to Ann Arbor later this month for one nite (Oct 29). Since I haven't been on any Amtrak train since Jan 2014 (Auto Train), I thought I'd give the Wolverines a try. I was prepared to accept that in order to get there on time for a concert starting 730P, I'd have to take 350 out (lv CUS 720A), but for the return 351 (lv ARB 641A) is simply too early, and 359 (lv ARB 404P) is too late - especially having to make a BNSF connection home.

So if I go, it will be I-94 and on my schedule.

Mr. Lustig's monthly train performance reports suggest there has been some improvement; but still a long way to. I hope in time this will prove to be "a penalty for progress".