MADISON, Wis. — The state of Wisconsin has begun studying the possibility of adding a second daily round trip to the Chicago-Milwaukee-Twin Cities Borealis service, WisBusiness.com reports.
The train’s ridership has been exceeding projections by 10% to 15% each month since its May 21 launch, Lisa Stern, chief of railroads and harbors for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, told the news site. Through Oct. 31, it had carried 109,826 riders, while Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the Empire Builder, which operates on the same route, had not seen any drop in ridership.
The Borealis study is one that received a $500,000 grant under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program in December 2023 [see “Full list of passenger routes in FRA Corridor program …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023]. The study, and three others for which Wisconsin DOT received Corridor ID grants, are in their early stages, with consultants working to determine the scope, budget, and timelines for full Service Development Plans. Among issues to be determined are what infrastructure improvements host railroad Canadian Pacific Kansas City might require to permit an additional round trip.
Early Borealis ridership was strong enough that the possibility of an additional trip began being raised within weeks of the train’s debut. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in July that a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation called such talk “premature” at that time.
How about service Appleton/Green Bay?
One more comment. From the position of the sun, this appears to be the WB train running on the EB track. In fact, when we rode WB to Saint Paul we did run wrong main through Brookfield, something I didn’t notice until we crossed North Avenue (Waukesha County CTH M) at grade, whereas the WB track is grade separated over North Avenue.
Nice to see the many informed posts and corrections…one of my own: The curve north of Rondout, it has a name which I forget, supposedly had a sign warning “slow to 90”, but I do not recall ever seeing a photo of it. Anyone?
And here’s an anecdote: years ago shortly after the Soo/CP annihilation of the Milwaukee, I spent an afternoon at Rondout. It wasn’t long before the tower operator invited me up. The walls were covered with photos, posters, and memorabilia. Any of it saved? During conversation about the curve speed limit the operator casually mentioned that a CP feight had gone thru at 90 MPH…probably a former Milw. hogger. A true story?
This success story makes you wonder how many other markets exist for second trains on portions of long-distance routes, e.g. CHI-OMA-LNK, CHI-KC, CHI-CLE-PGH, CHI-IND-CIN, you get the picture.
Well, Jeffrey, the answer is YES and the answer is NO.
The YES is that these markets definietly do exist and should have been served decades ago. Those of us who have argued for intermediate markets and second frequencies have been proven correct by the instant and continuing success of the Boring Alice.
The NO is that CPKC’s cooperation is an outlier. Wisconsin and Amtrak were able to buy off CPKC with minimal improvements to the single-track line west of Pewaukee (along with adding a second paltform at MKA General Mitchell Airport, south of Milwaukee, where the passenger train frequency remains the same for now.) Other frieght railroads will not be as cooperative, especially on routes where track capacity has been reduced. Look at the ex-NYC Water Level Route across upstate New York. It was reported that EHH wanted to single-track it. Had he lived longer, he probably would have failed, as the state of New York and other passenger advocates would have been shaken down to pay to keep the second track.
Curtis Larson: Slow to 100 at Rondout.
And there are those of us who remember riding a Morning Hi from CUS after breakfast at the Palmer House basement coffee shop…hi speed up the C&M to a breathtakingly quick stop at Glenview while ignoring any speed limit to Lake tower, screeching brakes over the KK bridge, then curving around the Everett St depot tracks like a glamorous babe in UP red and yellow. Matched ABA units, baggage & express, bunch of coaches, a parlor, the superdome, diner, maybe another parlor, and the skytop. Then nonstop to Columbus. Sitting up in the dome one felt surges of power. The time frame: 1965-69.
Here’s an anecdote, perhaps true: an old Milw. hand once told me that in pre-Glenview stop days the hoggers used to try making MKE-CUS in 65 minutes, that is 85 miles start to stop. You do the math.
When out and about on my bicycle in Elm Grove, Brookfield or Pewaukee, I see many photographers trackside. Often I wonder if one of them is David Lassen (and sometimes I ask). What I wish for David is that our mutual favorite train, the Boring Alice, weren’t so lens-breaking ugly. Four Horizon cars, an Amcafe, and at each point a mismatched loco or cab car.
PS We have lived in Waukesha County for 22 years. It’s a scenic area but never looked better than from a seat in the Boring Alice looking out.
For now, why not add another car or 2 as it seems to be pretty full these days?
I believe I’ve read there are a number of Viewliner Slprs at Beech Grove awaiting service might as well fix what you have and make some revenue with them. Never heard any more about western LD replacements I guess they will just eliminate those routes through attrition as the equipment becomes unserviceable?
I wonder if there is a market for running the Viewliner sleepers selling the space at a premium price? I hear anecdotal accounts of folks paying for private rooms for the daylight portions of overnight trains.
Sorry for the typo “29th…”
Again a nice photo of the split ROW (Milw Rd) at ElmGrove. And yes, CP might not have eliminated so much double track back in the mid/late 1980’s, but there was mostly stick rail and only the Builder running, so the change was logical. Now times have changed. Back then the line embraced a Soo Line mindset, which was single track, but the old Soo also had more welded rail than the entire Milw. system. Now increased capacity mandates welded ROW and higher speeds will follow, esp. MKE-CUS. Apropo Mr. Landey’s comment, there is a good stretch of double iron thru Columbus; in fact some of the Milwaukee’s best running was in central Wisc. due to a major alignment upgrade early 29th century. This in turn precipitated the CNW’s Adams cutoff in order to compete. At some point I will post a summary of the Milwaukee’s early 1950’s Chi-Milw-MSP schedule and people can see what worked. Finally, are we to see Morning and Afternoon Borealissss?
CURTIS Thanks for your informative post but I must (pedantically) call out an error in the first line.
The photo is looking west at Brookfield Road in Brookfield. Note the utility poles at far right which would be River Road, Brookfield. Note also the sun side of the lead loco which means the view is toward the west. If the scene were the split at Elm Grove the view would be toward the east.
At this location, the land slopes up to the south (left), giving a nice view of the tracks. Then further upslope (south) is the very popular coffee shop made from the relocated Brookfield Depot.
Even an 0600 departure from MSP arriving CHI at ~ 1325 would make connections to #5, #21, too close and close for #3. Probably an 0530 would be better. As WI is studying the 2nd train 0530 or 0500 would give those WI stations would benefit greatly for connections to the many departures out of CHI.
Now if the enroute times between MSP CHI can be reliability reduced in the future as proposed then maybe eventually a 0600 MSP can be feasible. A much later departure for the 2nd train from CHI would work for any possible connection + giving CHI visitors and residents a full day in the CHI area.
I would like to know how many Borealis passengers continue their journeys beyond Chicago. Or are the bulk of riders regional to the locales between the Twin Cities and Milwaukee?
There’s been talk of extending it to Fargo ND, this would be possible if it traveled the St Paul to Chi segment at night thereby giving a full day of connections at Chi & would be giving daylight travel between Fargo & St. Paul which is now travelled in the middle of the night by the Emp Bldr.
Are there the sleepers to make this overnight trip feasible?
Extending the Borealis to/from Fargo could all be done in the daylight. Leave Fargo 630 to 7 and arriving before midnight.
BNSF’S Staples Sub would need little or no improvements. Mostly 2 main track ctc, stations already exist. The ex NP depot in Wadena and Little Falls would only need a platform. Could use Anokas North Star station.
In response to what Charles said about the single track station stops. Would it not be reasonable to put back in place the second track in those areas? At least three or four miles to allow freight and passenger to meet.
Sounds like Minnesota might need to think about chipping into the Midwest equipment pool. The next question: How many riders are going between the Twin Cities and Milwaukee (and vice versa)? The trick is to start/stop trains where they can have their daily inspections prior to the run. Apparently this now happens at SPUD as well as in Milwaukee International Station for Hiawatha Services. Do additional trains have to start/stop in Chicago?
Chicago is the hub of the entire long-distance system. So yes, many trains get inspected there daily.
A third train? In general yes, three train pairs per route is a good number. (I’m way too fond of quoting Paul Reistrup’s long-ago comment to that exact policy.) Sitting in SE Wisconsin, I can’t imagine how a third train would improve on the extraordinary convenience of the existing schedule. Then again, if I lived in Minnesota, I might see it different. A later arrival in St. Paul or an earlier departure from St. Paul might find a market.
Capacity would become a problem on a line that should not have been single-tracked. On our recent trip we noticed that one of the stations (Columbus or Portage, can’t remember which) was on a double-track segment with two passenger platforms. While the other stations such as the busy stop at Tomah had only one track and one platform.
The entire stretch along the Mississippi River has been reduced to single track from Hastings to La Crescent.
All passenger trains must contend with CPKC freight traffic going to and from western Canada to the CPKC system in states other than IL.
At Hastings, CPKC and BNSF operate parallel lines as shared double track from Hastings to St. Paul.
The fact that the Borealis is running is nothing short of a miracle. The second one will likely require much more infrastructure “build back”.