List of Upcoming New Routes? (as of Jan 2024)

[Steve Manfred]

Do we have a list anywhere of all the upcoming new Amtrak routes and the dates they are currently slated to start running? (As of Jan. 2024)
For example, I know they want to reestablish a route from the Twin Cities to Duluth, and add an additional train running from MSP to Chicago along the current Empire Builder route at a different time of day... this sort of thing... is there a list compiled anywhere of all these sorts of additions and when they want them to get running? (feel free to add cynical parentheses as to how delayed the start date will be)

If not, could we get one going here in this thread?

 

[John Bredin]

These things are at various stages.

*Second train CHI-MSP is happening this year. It'll use existing equipment and existing Hiawatha slots. Money for track improvements has been appropriated, and it's been agreed to begin service without all the improvements completed and then update the schedule (or be more reliable) later.

*So is New Orleans-Mobile, absent weirdness with choosing and establishing a station in Mobile, said weirdness including resistance from the port authority which seems to feel a couple of Amtrak trains will somehow bollix up freight traffic even though that's been solidly dispelled. Test trains have been run, some stations have been upgraded (mostly platforms & signage), etc.

*There may be other states planning to add trains this year, but I don't recall any off the top of my head. Virginia and North Carolina added trains in the last few years and are definitely in expansion mode.

*Chicago-Quad Cities is fully funded but bogged down for some years in "host" freight railroad issues with Iowa Interstate. If Illinois politicians can't get IAIS to cooperate, Amtrak (at IDOT's behest) needs to do some of the things they did with New Orleans-Mobile, including maybe bringing an action before the Surface Transportation Board. If/when IAIS is aboard, I don't recall there being that many improvements to do between the junction with the BNSF (already a multi-tracked fast line) and Moline, but the junction itself, has to be built as Google Maps shows the BSNF crossing over the IAIS on a bridge with no connecting track.

*California HSR, Brightline West HSR from Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maine, Montana, Alaska and Chicago Union Station got real funding, but these are substantial projects and none will be ready in a year. And not all will be new service, some (like Union Station) are improvements that expand capacity for more trains but by themselves don't add new trains.

*Everything else is planning grants, which are to prepare plans or update existing plans to apply for real funding in a future year.

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

Mobile is overdue, was to start late 2023, should be this year?

Virginia Tech probably 2026 (Christiansburg/Blacksburg).

Baton Rouge is hoping for 2027.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I guess it's not really Amtrak anymore, but the proposed Rockford Service (aka Blackhawk Corridor) is going ahead, albeit under Metra's purview.