The Blackhawk Chicago - Rockford -Dubuque (split: IL Service

The main takeaway from this is that the service will NOT be continuing on beyond Rockford to Freeport/Galena/Dubuque, as originally planned. Rockford is a rather significant truncation. If CNIC would have been okay with hosting the train west of Rockford only (as opposed to along the entire route), then that would have been negotiated already. I am very skeptical due to the placement of the west end of this service in "future expansion" status. In light of this latest news, in my mind, it's essentially a never-gonna-happen.

Hopefully this newly-routed "east end" service can garner sufficient ridership to justify keeping the thing going. It ain't gonna be a fast ride, that's for sure.

A spiffy UP passenger special went up that-a-way yesterday [Thursday].

I'll believe it when I see it.

Rrstar.com - State, railroad officials say Amtrak will start trains to Rockford in 2015

“Beginning this spring and summer, we will build passenger rail from Chicago to Elgin to Huntley to Belvidere and Rockford,” Quinn told about 75 people at a news conference at Davis Park.

The train will start running in 2015, with one train a day each way. A second train will be added in 2016.

http://www.rrstar.com/article/20140410/ ... 10329/NEWS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EricL wrote:The main takeaway from this is that the service will NOT be continuing on beyond Rockford to Freeport/Galena/Dubuque, as originally planned. Rockford is a rather significant truncation. If CNIC would have been okay with hosting the train west of Rockford only (as opposed to along the entire route), then that would have been negotiated already. I am very skeptical due to the placement of the west end of this service in "future expansion" status. In light of this latest news, in my mind, it's essentially a never-gonna-happen.

Hopefully this newly-routed "east end" service can garner sufficient ridership to justify keeping the thing going. It ain't gonna be a fast ride, that's for sure.

Well, if CN won't cooperate for Galena & Dubuque, they could always extend to Janesville. Has Amtrak ever considered direct Chicago-Janesville service? I think that could be successful!

Just joking!

From Marriott Downtown at City Creek Salt Lake City--

Mr. Quincunx has it right; wholly concur with his view.

A routing over the C&NW is a sure loser; there is no way with existing track the service could be time competitive with auto, even if the Jane Addams Tollway is perpetually under construction.

The only possible appeal this service could have to anybody is Union, as the 'base' would be railfans who hold the train ride is part of the experience. However with 'one a day' the usual model is little town to big town in the morning then back to little town in the evening. Such a schedule would be less than useless for a day excursion to the Illinois Railway Museum. Hotels in Union, uh, not too many, if any, options.

That UP got on board makes me wonder if they have a 'little public funding' in mind to fix up their rather decrepit line, which, with the latest 'Chrysler renaissance', is not completely devoid of traffic potential.

IIRC, Illinois had previously said they wouldn't start anything new with less than 2x/day service. And they had previously done a pretty comprehensive study which led to them choosing the CN/IC route. And now this announcement. My cynical mind says it's a desperate attempt by the Quinn administration to show some sort of progress in Western Illinois before the November election (since it looks like Quad Cities is going nowhere any time soon).

The temporary Rockford terminal would be the east side CNW depot until a new one (presumably at Main St) gets built. The line east of Belvidere is in a good state of repair. Needs are signaling, the crossover at Big Timber and siding(s). The seven miles west to Rockford needs rail and ballast.

This is a redux of the Janesville and Valpo trains. A service lane in Metra's wheelhouse, but outside of the RTA. Aka locals want a Metra route without having to pay for it.

1x/day is lunacy. Save your money and stay home at that rate... You've got to have 2-3x/day to have any interest at all or you have an exercise in silliness.

Tadman wrote:1x/day is lunacy. Save your money and stay home at that rate... You've got to have 2-3x/day to have any interest at all or you have an exercise in silliness.

But it will be two trains a day fairly soon. Here's the quote;
"The train will start running in 2015, with one train a day each way. A second train will be added in 2016."

electricron wrote:

Tadman wrote:1x/day is lunacy. Save your money and stay home at that rate... You've got to have 2-3x/day to have any interest at all or you have an exercise in silliness.

But it will be two trains a day fairly soon. Here's the quote;
"The train will start running in 2015, with one train a day each way. A second train will be added in 2016."

Cynical as I am, I could foresee a big commotion from now until Election Day, but without much money being spent or work actually being done.

Following up on Station Aficionado's notion, I would not be at all surprised if negotiations continue with CN about using their better route. Why should CN want money invested in the UP's parallel and potentially competing route?

So possibly a postponement of the first train will be redeemed by the two trains being launched at the same time … maybe even in 2016 and maybe even on the CN tracks.

In other words, I completely agree with Tadman that 2x/day is the absolute minimum for a route like this. And I think Gov Quinn and the others know this too. But due to election year pressures, they feel a need to blow smoke now. After the election they can be more realistic about the route.

Pure speculation on my part, of course.

Woody wrote:

electricron wrote:

Tadman wrote:1x/day is lunacy. Save your money and stay home at that rate... You've got to have 2-3x/day to have any interest at all or you have an exercise in silliness.

But it will be two trains a day fairly soon. Here's the quote;
"The train will start running in 2015, with one train a day each way. A second train will be added in 2016."

Cynical as I am, I could foresee a big commotion from now until Election Day, but without much money being spent or work actually being done.

Following up on Station Aficionado's notion, I would not be at all surprised if negotiations continue with CN about using their better route. Why should CN want money invested in the UP's parallel and potentially competing route?

So possibly a postponement of the first train will be redeemed by the two trains being launched at the same time … maybe even in 2016 and maybe even on the CN tracks.

In other words, I completely agree with Tadman that 2x/day is the absolute minimum for a route like this. And I think Gov Quinn and the others know this too. But due to election year pressures, they feel a need to blow smoke now. After the election they can be more realistic about the route.

Pure speculation on my part, of course.

After the previous Illinois expansion, loads of people came on here to say it was all just election year politics, and the trains would be gone in a year. Instead, it's been a very successful expansion. If Quinn wanted a cynical election year push, he'd get the train running in the election year, not the year after. "We're allocating money to run sometime the year after the election" isn't nearly as sexy to voters as you all seem to think. This seems more likely to be something he believes in and supports, and/or something people he listens to believe in.

It seems to me if you want to do the "art movie" (Chicago-Rockford AM dep, Rockford-Chicago midday dep) you should first do the "money movie" (Rockford-Chicago AM peak Chicago-Rockford PM peak). But I guess that means getting Metra to yield up slots on the MD-W plus have the Rockford service run in a timely fashion to make those slots.

ryanch wrote:

EricL wrote:The main takeaway from this is that the service will NOT be continuing on beyond Rockford to Freeport/Galena/Dubuque, as originally planned. Rockford is a rather significant truncation. If CNIC would have been okay with hosting the train west of Rockford only (as opposed to along the entire route), then that would have been negotiated already. I am very skeptical due to the placement of the west end of this service in "future expansion" status. In light of this latest news, in my mind, it's essentially a never-gonna-happen.

Hopefully this newly-routed "east end" service can garner sufficient ridership to justify keeping the thing going. It ain't gonna be a fast ride, that's for sure.

Well, if CN won't cooperate for Galena & Dubuque, they could always extend to Janesville. Has Amtrak ever considered direct Chicago-Janesville service? I think that could be successful!

Just joking!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Country_Limited" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amtrak tried the Lake County Limited. It may have worked as a road railer magazine hauler from the Janesville plant. May be a model for not to ptovide service if the track needs to be upgraded from 30moh.

I'd like to see a Franklin Park stop for an easy bus/taxi connection into O'Hare.

dowlingm wrote:It seems to me if you want to do the "art movie" (Chicago-Rockford AM dep, Rockford-Chicago midday dep) you should first do the "money movie" (Rockford-Chicago AM peak Chicago-Rockford PM peak). But I guess that means getting Metra to yield up slots on the MD-W plus have the Rockford service run in a timely fashion to make those slots.

Hey, things are crowded enough on the MD-W as is. The last thing we need is a hole being cut into our schedule to accommodate this in rush hour; that's what the MD-N has with a 24 minute hole in departures from 448p to 512p to leave room for the 508p Hiawatha.

Another factor is space in Union Station. Right now you have a Hiawatha on 17 from around 8:00am to 8:30am plus I think the Heritage trains still unload on 19. But PM is the real issue. Hiawatha in from 4:30pm to 5:08pm plus you need a track clear for the Empire Builder whenever it shows up. Unless you loaded on 28 or 30 and pulled through and went out 21, I don't see this going out in PM rush without major schedule rework.

My expectation is an arrival no earlier than 8:45am - maybe scheduled to be ahead of 2226 out of Elgin. Return I'd think a departure at 6:05pm ahead of the MD-W 6:10pm would work. And even then, might need to load on the south side if the Builder has arrived on 19.

dowlingm wrote:It seems to me if you want to do the "art movie" (Chicago-Rockford AM dep, Rockford-Chicago midday dep) you should first do the "money movie" (Rockford-Chicago AM peak Chicago-Rockford PM peak). But I guess that means getting Metra to yield up slots on the MD-W plus have the Rockford service run in a timely fashion to make those slots.

Rest assured, the first schedule will be a morning run to Chicago, with an afternoon return. The second train will do the reverse. There's a lot more people in Rockford (Illinois' second biggest city), Huntley, etc. who want to go to Chicago than Chicago area residents who want to go to Rockford. Multiple trains a day, of course, would be ideal, and could develop as time goes on. Heading west to Galena and Dubuque would require the cooperation of CN, but they're an uncooperative bunch of jerks, so perhaps the state will have to find some ways to turn the screws on them.