ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Ongoing efforts to increase speeds on Amtrak’s Chicago-St. Louis route have been delayed again, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
As an intermediate step in plans to eventually offer 110-mph running, the Lincoln Service trains between Chicago and St. Louis were to begin 90-mph operation on parts of the route this summer. But Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Guy Tridgell told the newspaper that hopes are now to have 90-mph operation between Granite City and Alton, Ill., a segment of approximately 20 miles, by the end of the year. Additional 90-mph should begin next year.
Ongoing work on positive train control technology has slowed the effort to increase speed on the route [see “Faster Midwest service stalled by PTC work,” Passenger, July 2018 Trains.]
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari cautioned there was no assurance any 90-mph operation will begin this year. “Well have to test it,” Magliari said, “and the [Federal Railroad Administration] looks at our test data.”
Full 90-mph operation where permissible on the route could shave 15 to 20 minutes off the current schedule, which varies from 5 hours, 20 minutes to 5 hours, 35 minutes. The planned 110-mph operation could save up to 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, northbound trains remain slowed by a segment of 30-mph running near Granite City that has not yet been signalled for 79-mph operation. Those trains lose about 15 minutes on that segment, as much as they would gain in an increase from 79- to 90-mph operation elsewhere.
I think it’s ridiculous that they are struggling to achieve what railroads were doing routinely almost 100 years ago.
The Illinois Central routinely ran 100 mph on segments south of Clinton IL in the late 1950s. I have documented that a southbound IC train in the late 1950s ran full-out with 2 e-units and 8 cars south of Mt. Olive IL and got up to 125 mph (the needle was buried against the pin) at that time – just to see how fast the train would run. I don’t recommend such excess, but the current state of “high speed rail” is a complete joke!
Hurry up and wait does not make a schedule great.
fRobert McGuire, why would you do that? Because some people are not going St. Louis to Chicago. They’re going to Alton, Lincoln, Springfield, Dwight, Pontiac, Bloomington/Normal, or Joliet, From any of the other cities, including St. Louis and Chicago.
The “Fraud and Politics” involved is that we need positive train control to operate “Safely.” How about make it so expensive that everyone just drive? If passengers had to pay the full true price of providing the service, most people would probably drive, which is, safety wise, far less safe. So the solution is to spend lots of money making an already very safe system slightly more safe while thousands still die on the highways. PTC implementation is proving to be rather expensive, and someone’s getting that money.
Bert Zajac – LMAO = Laughing my a– off
Could politics be involved?…no just PTC stupidity.
No longer amazed, just amused.
You can fly from St. Louis to Chicago in 45-50 minutes why would you take a vehicle that takes 5 plus hours?
LMAO
Ditto Bret..Just ditto..
The Alton in the 1930’s and 1940’s, made very close to the same times, Chicago to St. Louis, with steam locomotives, jointed rail, and 70 mph speed limit. The diesel trains did it in 4:55 in the same time frame, but they had a 75 mph speed limit. In the 1950’s and 1960’s 4 of the GM&O trains over the route were also carded at 5:05 to 5;09 with the 75 mph speed limit. That was 50-80 years ago.
Bert: What does LMAO stand for?
Let’s look at the first two words of the blog … “Ongoing efforts ….” Ongoing for how long? Seems to me this has been in the works for about twenty years. Does anyone have a better number?
Fraud. I think the public has been deceived in what was promised vs what has been delivered. Who is responsible, I am not sure but why with all the money spent to upgrade this route do we still have this situation. It calls for an investigation to determine why.
I can understand the slower running between Chicago/Joliet and Alton/St Louis but the foot dragging is painful. Michigan got their 110 mph operation in operation much quicker and successfully than Illinois. Could politics be involved?
With these continuous delays in implementing high speed trains, many of us will not be alive in this mortal world to see these trains operate at their potential speeds.