by EricL
7 & 8 carried CHI/MKE passengers in the not-too-distant past - up until the last increase in "local train" frequencies - and this could easily be done again. (Even today they still do, in service-recovery/emergency type situations.) All it would take would be a managerial decision coupled with a concurrence from the State. The current situation is only in effect because Wisconsin wanted to prop up its own ridership/revenue numbers, and Amtrak was happy to let these newly-freed Superliner seats go up for grabs to potential long-haul pax. It really isn't that hard to calculate out the proportional shares between the parties - and it's irrelevant anyway, since Amtrak keeps all the ticket revenue; the amount by which the State subsidizes the service is contractually set forth, ahead of time, regardless of passenger counts.
In Illinois, 21/22 and 58/59 (all "federal" trains) still happily accept intra-state traffic, and in fact those trains do quite a bit of business that way.
Tangentially: the Hiawatha service is slowly inching toward reserved service - quite in the same manner which the NEC workhorses did a decade ago. They have already put on a $2 "peak" surcharge for the rush hour trains, and they have already declared that same will be reservation-only during the Thanksgiving holiday period. I get why they're doing it - overcrowding - but I do think it is a bit of shame, at least for now. If and when the new frequencies get put on, then okay, sure. But right now, it seems silly to me to turn away a rider from a 1.5 hr ride because it's sold out - when the next departure is two hours away. You've more than doubled their trip time right there, and they're probably going to walk down to the other side of the station to see about getting a sooner Greyhound or Megabus.
In Illinois, 21/22 and 58/59 (all "federal" trains) still happily accept intra-state traffic, and in fact those trains do quite a bit of business that way.
Tangentially: the Hiawatha service is slowly inching toward reserved service - quite in the same manner which the NEC workhorses did a decade ago. They have already put on a $2 "peak" surcharge for the rush hour trains, and they have already declared that same will be reservation-only during the Thanksgiving holiday period. I get why they're doing it - overcrowding - but I do think it is a bit of shame, at least for now. If and when the new frequencies get put on, then okay, sure. But right now, it seems silly to me to turn away a rider from a 1.5 hr ride because it's sold out - when the next departure is two hours away. You've more than doubled their trip time right there, and they're probably going to walk down to the other side of the station to see about getting a sooner Greyhound or Megabus.
Last edited by EricL on Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hey there guy