Illinois Amtrak Service

Rockingham Racer wrote:Tough call. Vermont St. has more public transit connectivity than Tinley, and Tinley has more available parking than Vermont St. I think I'd come down on the side of Vermont St. though. Tinley isn't that far a car trip from Joliet, either. In the end, I suppose it comes down to how the south suburbs people would be more likely to access the service: by public transit, or by car.

Vermont St. would also fit in with Amtrak's policy of having stations at common locations with local transit; that's why the Surfliners stop at Solana Beach and the Delmar stop was discontinued. When the Coaster stop was established at Solana Beach instead of Delmar, and local bus services centered around it, Amtrak moved to Solana Beach.

Woody wrote:

Federal Railroad Administration Announces
Multi-state Request for Proposals for
Next-Generation Passenger Rail Locomotives

I was interested in the discussion of reestablishing the production of domestically produced passenger locomotives. Amtrak has clearly been successful in doing exactly this with their partners at CAF for rolling stock and Siemens for electric motive stock. Furthermore, it appears the contracts are being structured to stretch out orders keeping the assembly lines running as long as possible. Also a good sign.

ExCon90 wrote:

Rockingham Racer wrote:Tough call. Vermont St. has more public transit connectivity than Tinley, and Tinley has more available parking than Vermont St. I think I'd come down on the side of Vermont St. though. Tinley isn't that far a car trip from Joliet, either. In the end, I suppose it comes down to how the south suburbs people would be more likely to access the service: by public transit, or by car.

Vermont St. would also fit in with Amtrak's policy of having stations at common locations with local transit; that's why the Surfliners stop at Solana Beach and the Delmar stop was discontinued. When the Coaster stop was established at Solana Beach instead of Delmar, and local bus services centered around it, Amtrak moved to Solana Beach.

Vermont Street would be the best choice. There's a number of parking lots, it's not far from I-57 and would offer good transit choices with Metra Rock Island, Metra Electric and Pace. Tinley Park is only a short hop from Joliet, Blue Island would be better sited for south suburban and Chicago South Side riders.

gokeefe wrote:I was interested in the discussion of reestablishing the production of domestically produced passenger locomotives. Amtrak has clearly been successful in doing exactly this with their partners at CAF for rolling stock and Siemens for electric motive stock. Furthermore, it appears the contracts are being structured to stretch out orders keeping the assembly lines running as long as possible. Also a good sign.

The RFP document package for the Next Gen diesel locomotive order is on the Illinois DOT website under Multi-State Locomotive Procurement. There is a lot of information in those documents, worthy of its own thread.

It should be noted that one the second page of the intro to the RFP, there is a table that states the RFP is for 32 base # of locomotives with options for 50 to 75 similar configuration locomotives and 125 to 150 Long-Distance Configuration locomotives.

Under the table, it states: "The number of “Option Locomotives” shown in the table above are estimates of potential demand only and do not represent guaranteed future orders of option locomotives. Illinois, Washington, and California, as well as other public agencies and other entities, may place option orders for locomotives beyond the Base Order in the configurations listed above."

This is not just an RFP for buying 35 new Next Gen diesel locomotives for IL & the Midwest Coalition, WA, CA, but also for replacing all the P-42s (when the funding is available).

CHTT1 wrote:

ExCon90 wrote:

Rockingham Racer wrote:Tough call. Vermont St. has more public transit connectivity than Tinley, and Tinley has more available parking than Vermont St. I think I'd come down on the side of Vermont St. though. Tinley isn't that far a car trip from Joliet, either. In the end, I suppose it comes down to how the south suburbs people would be more likely to access the service: by public transit, or by car.

Vermont St. would also fit in with Amtrak's policy of having stations at common locations with local transit; that's why the Surfliners stop at Solana Beach and the Delmar stop was discontinued. When the Coaster stop was established at Solana Beach instead of Delmar, and local bus services centered around it, Amtrak moved to Solana Beach.

Vermont Street would be the best choice. There's a number of parking lots, it's not far from I-57 and would offer good transit choices with Metra Rock Island, Metra Electric and Pace. Tinley Park is only a short hop from Joliet, Blue Island would be better sited for south suburban and Chicago South Side riders.

Yes, I was thinking along those lines also. There's also a little more operational flexibility at BI, with crossovers. I don't think there are any at the Tinley station, are there?

Much as I like Vermont Street, IC/electric connectivity is a bit tenuous (it's a slow single track country branch in the big city), parking is usually overflow, and the more affluent neighborhoods are shifting towards Orland Park or Tinley Park. Ergo, Tinley Park would probably make a better stop because your business travelers are closer.

Truth be told, the best option would be to send the train down the Metra/SWS line and build a connector to the Rock in New Lennox. Intermediate stops to be at 143rd.

Yes, in that SWS already leaves from CUS and the route is an established one. Bit of a climb at a new connector to the RI in New Lenox, though. I'm not so sure, that Orland/Palos is going to provide a significant number of business travelers want to go to Springfield/St. Louis. Just my opinion.

Tadman wrote:Much as I like Vermont Street, IC/electric connectivity is a bit tenuous (it's a slow single track country branch in the big city), parking is usually overflow, and the more affluent neighborhoods are shifting towards Orland Park or Tinley Park. Ergo, Tinley Park would probably make a better stop because your business travelers are closer.

Truth be told, the best option would be to send the train down the Metra/SWS line and build a connector to the Rock in New Lennox. Intermediate stops to be at 143rd.

I believe one of the options was to run CHI-JOL using Southwest Service tracks, with a connection to the Rock Island in New Lenox. The problem was that the connection would have been located in a park in New Lenox, and the village turned that proposal down immediately because of that. Also, could the fact that the Southwest Service is single-tracked south of 143rd Street have been a sticking point as well? If I recall, plans call for potentially making the route along the Rock Island triple-tracked between CHI and JOL.

Tadman wrote:Much as I like Vermont Street, IC/electric connectivity is a bit tenuous (it's a slow single track country branch in the big city), parking is usually overflow, and the more affluent neighborhoods are shifting towards Orland Park or Tinley Park. Ergo, Tinley Park would probably make a better stop because your business travelers are closer.

Truth be told, the best option would be to send the train down the Metra/SWS line and build a connector to the Rock in New Lennox. Intermediate stops to be at 143rd.

Have you ever ridden the Southwest Service? Hardly a speed demon. Let's see, long connection track at New Lenox, single track to 143rd, at-grade crossings of CSX, CN and Belt, single track around NS yard, short run on NS. Lot of work to improve that route to "higher" speed. Rock Island lends itself to better operations, although a new connection would be needed from Rock to Union Station. Snaking around the St. Charles Airline would be painfully slow. Access to NS at 63rd St. possible, if a separate passenger route was created. Seems like fixing up the CN/Heritage Line would be a lot cheaper (and more direct).

Options from the EIS:

Alt 1 BNSF:

eliminated primarily because of poor travel time, operational issues, and anticipated difficulties related to the host railroad’s readiness to accommodate high speed passenger service on its tracks.

Alt 3 SWS:

eliminated primarily because of operational issues, anticipated difficulties related to the host railroad’s readiness to accommodate high-speed passenger service on its tracks, higher potential right-of-way impacts because of a section of existing single track, potential Section 4(f) impacts (parkland), and generally a higher potential for environmental impacts.

CN vs. RID:

Operational performance of the Selected Alternatives to achieve acceptable on-time performance standards was of high importance when selecting an alternative. Currently, Amtrak is pursuing relief from the Surface Transportation Board for failure of the Canadian National Railroad (Section 1) to properly dispatch Amtrak trains to avoid delays. The RID Railroad (Section 2) is dispatched by Metra. While Section 2 has considerably more traffic than Section 1, the Metra trains are on a fixed timetable with a 95 percent on-time performance record. Section 1 has unpredictable freight traffic, including shipper servicing which makes on-time performance more difficult to achieve. Incremental infrastructure improvements to Section 2 can be made to preserve or enhance on-time performance in a shorter time frame at a lower cost. Section 1 would require construction of four costly and time consuming flyovers to preserve or enhance on-time performance. In comparison, Section 2 requires only one flyover at the Joliet, Elgin, & Eastern (EJ&E) Railroad.

Cost:
Section 2 costs $200 to $500 million less than Section 1 primarily due to the need for the four flyovers.

That makes sense. The CN/Heritage line has more at-grade crossings with other railroads than the Southwest Service. Adding an overpass at the EJ&E in Joliet along with the Englewood flyover would eliminate any rail crossing delays on the Rock. Getting the trains from the Rock to Union Station still poses a challenge.

Mackensen wrote:

jobtraklite wrote:In a nice (from my perspective) stealth move, Chicago's metropolitan lounge is now available to business class passengers. At least that is what the July 15, 2013 Illinois and Missouri table

http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/586/330/Ill ... 071513.pdf

says, although the station lounges page of Amtrak.com

http://www.amtrak.com/station-lounges" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

disagrees.

I have to assume that's a misprint, especially as there's no corresponding language for the Michigan Services: http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/25/750/Mich ... 071513.pdf.

Apparently not a misprint. Here is an excerpt of an email from Amtrak Customer Service in response to my query:

Business Class passengers are now eligible to use the Chicago, IL and Portland, OR Metropolitan Lounge. Amtrak.com should be updated in the near future.

A rumor had it that this change was the result of pressure put on Amtrak by Illinois. Nothing in the email saying that Michigander's will be shut out. Or for that matter Indianans who connect from Illinois service BC to the lowly Hoosier State.

Also, good news for those traveling in and out of Portland.

For those of us who don't understand the significance of the Metropolitan Lounge change, who could use it before? Only sleeping car customers? It seems like it must have been nearly empty and hardly worth the expense of having such a lounge. Glad for the change.

ryanch wrote:For those of us who don't understand the significance of the Metropolitan Lounge change, who could use it before? Only sleeping car customers?

Yes, basically just sleeping car customers (and a few folks with the appropriate Guest rewards status).

ryanch wrote: It seems like it must have been nearly empty and hardly worth the expense of having such a lounge. Glad for the change.

The Chicago lounge gets pretty crowded (almost full) in the afternoon (before the westbound LD trains leave) and only slightly less full in the evening before the eastbound / Southbound departures. There is not a ton of spare room during these times.

ryanch wrote:For those of us who don't understand the significance of the Metropolitan Lounge change, who could use it before? Only sleeping car customers? It seems like it must have been nearly empty and hardly worth the expense of having such a lounge. Glad for the change.

Not hardly. There's a rush in the morning with the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited passengers, and another starting 11-12 as people gather for the West Coast trains.