Amtrak Midwest Train Routes.

[Amtrak Railfan]

What kind of Passager Cars does the Missouri Train Route have?

 

[battalion51]

Horizon coaches/dinette, ocasionally Amfleet I dinette.

 

[Amtrak Railfan]

Does the Southwest Chief have about 3 or 4 P42DCs?

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Generally, the Southwest Chief runs with 4 P42's. Sometimes however you can find it with only 3.

 

[Amtrak Railfan]

Where is the Amtrak Yard in Chicago IL?

 

[AlanB]

Where is the Amtrak Yard in Chicago IL?

It's in Chicago!

 

[Amfleet]

Where is the Amtrak Yard in Chicago IL?

It's on the southside of Chicago just before the rail entrance to Union Station. It also parallels the Chicago River and you can actualy see it from the river if you take a tour boat.

 

[P40Power]

The Chicago yard is always a cool thing to see comming into and leaving Chicago, there is always a ton of Amtrak cars and locomotives there and sometimes you can see a train going through the big washer building. It was pretty cool as well at night when it was all lit up.

I also liked being in Union Station's platform areas because it just had that railroad atmosphere: busy, loud (very loud), hot, smelled of diesel, Amtrak trains of all sizes going to all different destinations, people hurrying about! Watching the trains arrive and depart from the waiting area is always intresting as well.

Last time I was in CUS was 97, hopefully I will get there again someday soon.

 

[PennsyFan]

How do the Amtrak Hiawathas and Empire Builder get from Union Station (facing south) to points north? Is there some sort of circuitous route around Chicago, or a bypass under the city (like in Washington)? The METRA trains use Northwestern Station, so that isn't any help.

 

[AlanB]

Pennsyfan,

Chicago Union Station has tracks on both the north side and the south side, with the station in between. So the Hiawatha's use the north side tracks along with some METRA services.

The Empire Builder comes in from the north and platforms on the one track that runs through the station right alongside the river. Actually I believe that there are two run through tracks, however the second track does not have platforms either that or they don't use it since passengers would have to walk across a live track.

 

[AlanB]

Pennsyfan,

Click here for a map of CUS. It shows the lower level of the station with tracks on both the north side and the south side.

It does not however show the run-through tracks, but having run through on the City of NOL a year ago, I can assure you that they are indeed there. The run-throughs are on the right side of the station, as pictured in the map, just past track 30 on the south and track 25 of the north.

 

[Amtrak Railfan]

Thanks Alan B for the Map.

 

[EmpireBuilderFan]

It does not however show the run-through tracks, but having run through on the City of NOL a year ago, I can assure you that they are indeed there. The run-throughs are on the right side of the station, as pictured in the map, just past track 30 on the south and track 25 of the north.

I can't remember for sure, but I think the run-through track is known as tracks 26 (on the north) and 29 (on the south). There may even be "tracks" 27 and 28, but I don't remember seeing a door for them.

 

[Amtrak Railfan]

What kind of Passager Cars and Diesels does the International Train Route have between Chicago IL - Toronto ON? Thanks a lot and please help me out on this.

 

[battalion51]

P-42 and Superliner coaches.

 

[AlanB]

Last I knew the International was not running with Superliner cars. I think that they were using either Horizon's or Amfleet I's.

 

[battalion51]

I think they went back to Superliners after Toronto had trouble unfreezing cars.

 

[AlanB]

I think they went back to Superliners after Toronto had trouble unfreezing cars.

AFAIK, only during the extreme cold are Superliners used on this route. Otherwise it's single level only.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Last I knew the International was not running with Superliner cars. I think that they were using either Horizon's or Amfleet I's.

durring the winter we have superliners and then in the spring they put back on the no good cars and i mean there bad i won't go into details.Although there is a verbal deal with the State of Michigan that if Amtrak has extra Superliners that thsi train will run with them on it.

 

[tp49]

We can probably make a case for the International being one of the unloved step-children in the amtrak system.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

We can probably make a case for the International being one of the unloved step-children in the amtrak system.

Yea but we get a lot of passengers over 30% come from Canada i don't want it to go to the Bluewater we will loose a lot of passengers.

 

[tp49]

We can probably make a case for the International being one of the unloved step-children in the amtrak system.

Yea but we get a lot of passengers over 30% come from Canada i don't want it to go to the Bluewater we will loose a lot of passengers.

Only going to the Bluewater refers to the idea of cutting the train East of Port Huron, right? I was reading somewhere about complaints about the customs process where the have to take the passengers off at the last Canadian stop (believe it;s Sarnia not too sure) and bus them over the border to clear customs at a regular land border crossing. Is this really the case or was this exaggerated, and if it is why would they do that doesn't seem to make much sense to me when the other trains that cross the border (Adirondack and Maple Leaf) seem to do so without all of this hassle.

 

[AlanB]

Only going to the Bluewater refers to the idea of cutting the train East of Port Huron, right? I was reading somewhere about complaints about the customs process where the have to take the passengers off at the last Canadian stop (believe it;s Sarnia not too sure) and bus them over the border to clear customs at a regular land border crossing. Is this really the case or was this exaggerated, and if it is why would they do that doesn't seem to make much sense to me when the other trains that cross the border (Adirondack and Maple Leaf) seem to do so without all of this hassle.

TP,

The Bluewater would indeed cut the Canadian half of this train. It would also change it's departure time, such that this train would now arrive in Chicago around noon or so.

As for the customs there is still a bit of an issue with that, but it's not as bad as it was. However for a while after 9/11 you are correct, they were indeed taking pax off the train and bussing them over the board. The reason behind this was the fact that the US didn't have enough custom agents to spare. So they couldn't send any over to the train to perform the customs work.

Therefore Amtrak was forced to bus people across the boarder. I think that this situation lasted about 9 months to a year, although it may have been longer.

I'm not quite sure why we were able to find enough customs agents to continue checking people on-board the Adirondack and the Maple Leaf, but nonetheless we did find enough for those trains.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

The delays are not only from customs my reports come from an engineer that runs on this line and did a study for 42 days in Sept & Oct. he turned this report into the State of Michigan delays were caused by the lovely Freight RR which does not want anything to do with Amtrak.On time into CHI 17 times,Late due to customs 10 times,Late due to operating RR delays 15 times.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Oh and on the issue of the Customs Agents they don't like dealing with the train because they have to drive farther to work they would rather be on the Bridges.They are Rude to Passengers i have pulled one Agent aside and had a talk with him and told him i was going to file a complaint against him for the way he was talking to the Passengers and Crew on the train.