Does anyone know how many trains go north from La Crosse, WI, to St. Paul on a typical day?
Lots? Hard to say as, since except Amtrak's Empire Builder, they're all extras. Depends too on how literal you are about "north". CP's old Milwaukee Road mainline goes east to cross the Mississippi into Minnesota there, and then turns north. BNSF's old Burlington Route line runs north along the Wisconsin side until Prescott WI where it crosses the St. Croix river and enters Minnesota.
From Hastings to St. Paul (about 15-20 miles) the two railroads run next to each other, along the Mississippi's east bank, and the line is operated a joint two-track line. I live near that line. I'd say there's usually like a couple trains an hour going north or south, so maybe 50 trains a day?
Between La Crescent and Winona this is what operated this past Sunday;
Train 246 St. Paul to Bensenville
Train 247 Bensenville to St. Paul
Train 248 St. Paul to Chicago BRC Clearing Yd.
Train 249 BRC Clearing Yd. to St. Paul
Train 254 Tracy, MN (RCP&E) to Bensenville
Train 255 Bensenville to Tracy (RCP&E)
Train 280 St. Paul to Bensenvillw
Train 148 Roberts Bank to Bensenville
Train 149 Bensenville to Roberts Bank
Train 260 St. Paul to Shreveport, LA
3 sections of Train 261 Shreveport to St. Paul
Train 577 Oil empties Port Arthur, TX to Roysth, AB
J19 La Crosse to St. Paul local
J20 St. Paul to La Crosse local
Some of these ran after dark of course.
JayBee:What is the 260/261 pair? General freight? Is that a new CPKC operation train? Does that run down thru Dubuque to KC or thru Chicago?
ed
The BNSF runs paralell to the CP from La Crosse to St Paul. How much traffic do they run?
MP173 JayBee:What is the 260/261 pair? General freight? Is that a new CPKC operation train? Does that run down thru Dubuque to KC or thru Chicago? ed
260/261 are primarily Manifest traffic but they also move a good sized block of Autoracks for Cottage Grove, MN and Western Canada. I counted 38 Autoracks on Sunday's 3-261 as it passed by the Bellevue, IA webcam. This train pair was previously a St. Paul to Kansas City operation, but as per the merger plan was extended to Shreveport within a few days of the merger.
Am I correct to assume that the CPKC merger should have no effect on the routing of the trains originating or terminating in Bensenville or Clearing to/from the Twin Cities or points west? It seems that anything which previously was routed through Milwaukee would stay that way. The parallel routing along the Mississippi and between Chicago and Sabula was always available, and now seems better used for traffic destined for Kansas City and beyond
The CPKC merger should have no effect on Western Canada/St. Paul to Chicago traffic. Chicago to KC/Texas/Mexico traffic will increase over the next few years.
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