Trains Newswire item:
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/03/11-wisconsin-governor-includes-$45-million-for-expanded-hiawatha-service-in-budget-proposal
Amtrak says they have to buy a new trainset with locomotive(s) before they can go to 10 as well and I am not sure that is comming out of the $45 million or not or being funded by another means. My guess is it will be a Siemens trainset to match what the Midwest compact is purchasing already.
This is certainly a welcome expansion of service. Extending to Green Bay should be in future plans.
charlie hebdoExtending to Green Bay should be in future plans.
The best and probably cheapest way to do that would be to relay parts of the C&NW passenger main. It was the fastest way North out of Milwaukee speed, distance and curvature wise and almost all of the ROW is still available. I think that might be the reason the DOT is pushing it to the back burner more until it has a succesful demo corridor that is self-sufficient. Right now there is a significant dogleg in the former route that will slow down the timetable.
If it were up to me I would reactivate the lakefront trackage in Milwaukee and ride on the now bike trail up the bluffs towards UW-Milwaukee, then continue to use the former C&NW right of way northward. Connect to and buy the now UPRR Sheboygan line. Relay the rail between Sheboygan and Manitowoc and then buy the CN line West of Maintowoc......connect to Green Bay. Routing via the Fox River valley will produce more traffic but will require relaying the line via West Bend to Fond Du Lac that was taken out of service. Somehow convince CN to lay another track between Fond Du Lac and Green Bay (thats going to cost more than just reactivating the lakefront line which exists in larger parts).
Using the Milwaukee Road West to Duplaineville, WI and then North to Fond Du Lac on CN will add about 45 min to an hour of runtime. Taking the last C&NW route out via the Milwaukee Road North Milwaukee line is also going to add more time (20 to 30 min) to the more direct line that C&NW used to have direct from the former Lakefront C&NW depot.
So we'll see what the DOT finally decides but I think using CN North of Duplainville is too much of a dog leg for a decent higher speed schedule.
I think the challenge, in many ways, is restoring a route that has not seen passenger service in almost 50 years, but if it succeeds, it could be the model for rebuilding useful passenger rail services elsewhere.
charlie hebdoI think the challenge, in many ways, is restoring a route that has not seen passenger service in almost 50 years, but if it succeeds, it could be the model for rebuilding useful passenger rail services elsewhere.
The former lakefront line of C&NW in Milwaukee climbs the bluffs from the Art Center to just below street level at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and then it curves into the city in a trench and continues to climb until it is an elevated line. Really a cool piece of engineering that avoided lots and lots of railroad crossings. It is a bike trail now. It could be reused either for the City Trolley System or as a rail passenger line again because there is no other surface line in the City that would be that fast between the Foot of Wisconsin Ave (former C&NW lakefront Depot) and UWM or for that matter Northern Milwaukee (wealthy suburbs of Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, etc). If you could put the tracks down again on that ROW it would be a superior passenger line again speed wise. Hoping Milwaukee uses it again some day.
Until the mid-1960s it was the route of the Flambeau 400, Green Bay trains, the train to Ashland, Twin City trains, etc.
CMStPnPThe former lakefront line of C&NW in Milwaukee climbs the bluffs from the Art Center to just below street level at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and then it curves into the city in a trench and continues to climb until it is an elevated line.
Northbound, the train started at ground level at the downtown main depot, then went under the Lincoln Memorial Drive bridge (past the Art Center), then began the climb through the 'trench', past North Avenue (UW-Milwaukee) and up to Glendale, where the first grade crossing (Hampton Ave) was. One block further north the track crossed the only other grade crossing (Lydel Ave) between Milwaukee and Wiscona. Hampton Avenue was also the location of the switch for the spur through Estabrook Park and over the Milwaukee River High Bridge.
CMStPnPSo we'll see what the DOT finally decides but I think using CN North of Duplainville is too much of a dog leg for a decent higher speed schedule.
Hiawatha 2018 ridership was up 3.6% over 2017, over 96% on time.
http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/articles/amtraks-hiawatha-service-sees-record-increase-passenger-ridership/?fbclid=IwAR0NLpSz0csexRWbSY4BLSxjokvRp5PqfAcLa9okZcvjMWmkrjKPmdtRSko
The on time is great. However the ridership increase of 3.6% is only very slight. What the increase over the start up of this servie is an important metric. Coompare number of trains to ridership. What has limited growth? Is it lack of capacity on present trains?. SRO is not fun. Would the 10 trains have synergy to increase overall traffic on present trains plus additional traffic on new trains ?
blue streak 1 The on time is great. However the ridership increase of 3.6% is only very slight. What the increase over the start up of this servie is an important metric. Coompare number of trains to ridership. What has limited growth? Is it lack of capacity on present trains?. SRO is not fun. Would the 10 trains have synergy to increase overall traffic on present trains plus additional traffic on new trains ?
Had you bothered to read the brief article, you might have noticed that it said "Ridership has more than doubled since 2003, when the service began providing seven round-trips daily." And a 3.6% increase is quite good compared to many other Amtrak routes. Amtrak ridership as a whole was flat compared to 2017.
blue streak 1However the ridership increase of 3.6% is only very slight. What the increase over the start up of this servie is an important metric. Coompare number of trains to ridership.
Going entirely off the top of my head so I might be off in some areas....
So I can tell you from the very start of Amtrak there were four trains each way between Milwaukee and Chicago that were run daily. Then Amtrak cut it back to three at some point to save money but would also change from the previous memory schedules with different train times on the weekend for 1-2 of the frequencies that were different. At it's lowest annual ridership was like 150k to 200k in that range. So since 1971 they have built up ridership most years with some small declines other years. At the start of Amtrak they only had three station stops. Milwaukee, Glenview and Chicago and the trip took about 90 min each way. Now they have five station stops. Milwaukee, Milwaukee Airport, Sturtevant, Glenview and Chicago. Still the trip is 90 minutes and they achieved that by improving the track as the trains run faster now on an average basis then they did back at Amtrak startup.
Biggest increase in ridership was adding the Mitchell Airport Station which I feel is used more by South Milwaukee folks than people that use the Airport. Just based on who parks at the station vs who takes the shuttle to the airport you can see majority of passengers park at the station.
What WisDOT is finding or found is by adding frequencies they are intensifying the ridership on the trains that run near capacity during rush hour in addition to adding the incremental ridership on the new trains. Why that happens is human behavior I think. People see more trains on the schedule so they are more willing to give the service a try and they tend to concentrate on the popular times vs taking advantage of the new train times.......kind of wierd.
So two of the trains each way now are near standing room only. The others run about 40-50% empty if not more. So after these next three frequencies they are going to try some more experimentation from what I heard. First they are going to try a premium priced express train frequency with no stops between Milwaukee and Chicago.........not sure how that will work but it will only cut 5-10 min from the schedule.
Second I heard they are going to try expanding capacity demand pricing which I think they charge $5 extra each way now with the two trains in each direction that run near or run standing room only. I think they are going to try bumping that up more so that a few more people shift to the less convienent times to save money and open up more seats at the popular times.
So this is kind of different approach than yield management and I am not sure why they are attempting the different pricing model. Will be interesting to see how it works out but it kind of explains why they do not use yield management on this route. Seems they are trying to use ticket price to push the ridership figures around more. This is a fixed price assessment on top of the regular ticket price for the indemand trains and that is how it differs from yield management which slowly increases in price as the train fills to capacity. They have a pretty good guess on if the train is sold out or not at the ticket window when you buy the tickets as when I have a LD train ticket they advise me in Milwaukee if the Hiawatha train is near or at capacity seat vs ticket sale wise. So they must have something on the Amtrak computer system that tells them this even though these are unreserved trains.
Another item they are doing but only in Chicago is if you pay $20 extra you can sit in the Burlington Room run by Amtrak which is comparable to a Metropolitain Lounge. So $20 buys you the nice waiting room with refreshments plus you can preboard the Hiawatha trains before they open the train to general boarding. So it is kind of like the Southwest Early Board fee of $40 each way.
The last positive thing that is happening is they made the Milwaukee Amtrak station a trolley stop on the new Milwaukee trolley which now only circulates around a small section of downtown with a Amtrak station stop but by the DNC convention in 2020 they are going to have two more trolley extensions in place. One extension will take you to the lakefront and the second I think will go all the way to the FiServe Forum (new arena just built) where the DNC will have the convention. So the expanding trolley is also feeding in riders to the train station as it grows. Also historic third ward next to the Depot is building density via additional apartment housing close by the Depot.
They have done pretty well with the Hiawatha Service and none of the subsidy comes from Amtrak treasury at all (both states are even being charged for replacement equipment now as the equipment ages......so the Siemens Chargers you see on the route were paid for via the Midwest HSR compact not via Amtrak funds). It is entirely funded from Illinois and Wisconsin. I am really curious to see how they do with the three additional frequencies with the pricing and schedule experimentation that those trips will allow.
charlie hebdo This is certainly a welcome expansion of service. Extending to Green Bay should be in future plans.
How about Madison? How about Minneapolis (work with Minnesota)?
Additional capacity provisions may be needed for the extra pasengers at all times during the DNC convention. It maybe that Milwaukee will not have enough rooms for the fringe personell. CHI could meet the overflow?
blue streak 1Additional capacity provisions may be needed for the extra pasengers at all times during the DNC convention. It maybe that Milwaukee will not have enough rooms for the fringe personell. CHI could meet the overflow?
Ha-ha your joking right? I've heard people state not enough hotel rooms as well but my thoughts it was sour grapes from the losing city. I just planned a family reunion for fall of this year. SE Wisconsin has more than enough hotel rooms without folks needing to cross the border. Chicago would be more convinent choice due to the trains.
The county next to Milwaukee (Waukesha County) has held the State Republican Convention and easily had more than enough hotel rooms without spill over into Milwaukee County. Several large resorts surround Milwaukee including the former Playboy resort at Lake Geneva, they just opene a huge resort in Sheboygan to the North (Google Blue Harbor resort), There is the very expensive Kohler resort (Google that). Very large hotels in Waukesha county to the West as stated.
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