The Hoosier State could use the South Shore's West Lake Corridor to reach Union Station via Grand Crossing or the St. Charles Air Line and would be the best choice of any alternate routes. I imagine the HS could run Chicago to Dyer in 40 minutes or less and any interference would be minimal.
Because they are commuter trains run by local transit agencies with their own ticketing and price systems?
I have heard that even if there was a desire, the cost would be enormous to achieve that, because it will take complete replacement of the Amtrak reservation system to have a single system that could issue tickets uniformly. Apparently when all the Amtrak California stations, Thruway and all, were added to the Amtrak system, it pretty much brought it to its limit. Adding something like an LIRR or even an NJT to it will cause it to pretty much crash and burn apparently. Of course, someone like Anthony may be able to give a more informed verification or refutation of it if he is able to without getting into trouble himself.
(Bolding mine) any time I've booked the rail trip months in advance and need to get to my final destination via commuter rail.
And on the NEC, you want to book at least 15 days out to get the discounted price, and I believe there is a limited # sold at the discounted price, so you want to book even earlier if you know your plans.
Ok, let's say you book LIRR tickets through the Amtrak reservation system. Do you get rush hour tickets or off-peak tickets for LIRR? Is the LIRR conductor supposed to have a scanner than can read your Amtrak eTicket?
I guess that depends on the train you select. While ideally in the future we'll have unified ticketing media across all transit systems, for now, if you're far enough out, the proper fare media could be mailed to you, or possibly picked up at the station. Just give your name or reservation number, and it's handed over, or printed out. Perhaps for now it would only speed things by <15 seconds per transaction, but that number could grow in the future.
Again, ideally, all public transit systems, bus, ferry, commuter rail, Amtrak, etc. would share the same fare media. I could even see value bringing the airlines in on it actually so one ticket puts you on the bus to the train station, then the train to the airport, then the plane to the arrival airport, then the train from it, then the bus to your final destination.
It's not so much complicating Amtrak's reservation system, as creating a national ticketing system across all modes and systems. I'm afraid though, SEPTA, Metro North, Metrolink, Metra or anyone else has no reason to initiate this, except for the Northeastern systems, they're isolated domains, and even SEPTA and NJT cleanly interface in exactly two locations. So it would have to be Amtrak's doing, or from higher up in the DOT, as no one else has any reason to initiate any project of this scope.
Once the dedicated passenger tracks are in place between CUS and IN, these trains could be routed over the former PA line through Valparaiso and Wanatah. That would speed up the schedule quite a bit.
South of the Lake reroute has nothing to do with the Cardinal/Hoosier State. It would affect the CL, LSL and Michigan trains. The former PRR mainline though Valpo and Fort Wayne is now a 20 mph short line. It would be very expensive to put it back into shape for passenger trains.
I can believe that.
Aren't the three letter codes in reailty just a throwback to the old times when booking agents had to punch cryptic strings into command line interfaces on arcane terminals?
