Wish I could have taken the train!

[eolafan]

Well, my monthly trip from my home in Aurora, IL to our corporate offices in Hartford, WI really became an eventful one in December. The trip to Hartford on Wed. was relatively uneventful and I got there with no problem in about two hours and fifty minutes...HOWEVER [xx(] my trip home last night was anything but uneventful...taking me SIX HOURS AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES [:(!] due to the snow storm here in metro Chicago.

Oh, if only there had been a train travel option that made sense. Yes, I could have taken Metra to CUS and then Amtrak to Milwaukee and rented a car, but that would have been about four times the cost and a really big hassle round trip, so I drive. Oh, for the olden days of lots of available train travel. Remembering back to a recent TRAINS map of the month which indicated Wisconsin once had literaly over one thousand station stops and now less than a dozen, and I believe at one time Hartford was one of those many stops.

WOW, how I hate driving in metro Chicago in the winter (or for that matter, any time).

Excuse me while I step down from my soap box. [;)]

[upchuck]

I completely understand your need to vent your spleen.

[CSXrules4eva]

eolafan, how far is Hartford from Aurora?? At first I was thinking Connecticut, but that trip would of been WAY more than 6 hours in SNOW all the way over to Illinois.

It is a shame you couldn't of taken the train all the way because, then you wouldn't have to worry about the numb nut drivers in the snow getting stuck and panicing (SP). Even if the train was delayed you could of sat back and let others worry about the weather.

[eolafan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CSXrules4eva

eolafan, how far is Hartford from Aurora?? At first I was thinking Connecticut, but that trip would of been WAY more than 6 hours in SNOW all the way over to Illinois.

It is a shame you couldn't of taken the train all the way because, then you wouldn't have to worry about the numb nut drivers in the snow getting stuck and panicing (SP). Even if the train was delayed you could of sat back and let others worry about the weather.

Hartford is about 150 miles from Aurora and it normally takes me about 2.75 to 3.0 hours to make the trip (which I have taken hundreds of times while working 11 years for this company). The best time I ever experienced was 2.5 hours but that was in perfect weather conditions. This time was a real nightmare...but I guess THAT'S LIFE IN THE BIG CITY OF CHICAGO! [8)]

[UPTRAIN]

I take the train if my destination falls on a route, it works out, and I have the ca***o do it, lol.

[trainboyH16-44]

Here I have had an idea for a train, a train that goes to the mountains in the morning, and comes back at night. If there were a train like that, I would do a lot more railfanning, not having to rely on my parents for transportation!
A while back, 70s or 80s, there was a big rockslide near the top of Kicking Horse Pass (Sink Lake), it crossed both Canadian Highway #1 and the CPR line. It took CP 8 hours to clean off the line, whereas it took the highway 36 hours. Just goes to show that railways win.

[cnw4001]

Will the new METRA circle route get you any closer to a viable train trip?

Then there's the advantage to catching METRA in Aurora, you can get what amounts to a cab ride by standing at the low level door in the eastbound cab car.

That was a great part of our vacation stop in Aurora along with staying at the motel with a room at the end looking toward the METRA Station.

[fuzzybroken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnw4001

Will the new METRA circle route get you any closer to a viable train trip?

It will likely take a little more to make it a simpler trip, including Wisconsin's addition to the Metra system, which will hopefully happen soon!!! Nonetheless, there's still that tricky leg out to Hartford, which will probably be a long ways from getting rail transportation. (Originally I was thinking Hartland, which makes me wonder why there can't be an expansion of the Hiawatha out to, say, Watertown, especially considering the growing population in the area. A short trial of an expansion happened a few years ago while I-94 was being rebuilt.)

[eolafan]

While not knowing for certain, I would guess the closest Amtrak stops to Hartford would be Milwaukee (about 40 miles to the Southeast) and Oconomowac (about 25 to 30 miles South and slightly west), so actually until Hartford gets some sort of commuter service I guess I will continue to drive this route, over and over and over and over (I am going up again this week and again next, HHHHUUUUURRRRRAAAAAYYYYY).

I would venture a guess that the closest a commuter line out of Milwaukee will ever get to Hartford is West Bend.

[daveklepper]

About eleven years ago, I had projects in both Glencoe, IL, and Rockford, IL, I was living in New York at the time. The days of the great trains were gone, of course, and Amtrak's Lake Shore had heritage equipment. I decided to do the whole thing by train, anyway. This was in the middle of winter. Arrived in Chicago about four hours late in the middle of a snowstorm, had to carry my test equipment and suitcase from Union Station to the Northwestern Transportation Center or whatever they call it, but I knew perfectly well that I wouldn't have arrived at all if I'd planned on fliying. Metra was running on time, and service on the Kenosha line is frequent enough that I could depend on getting a train whatever the time the Lake Shore arrived. And the meals and the service on the Lake Shore were better than OK. Everything had worked in the roomette, no flat wheel, and the diner had prepared for my special diet. Having a good dinner while viewing the Hudson is always a pleasure even in a snowstorm. When work was finished in Glencoe, I checked the Metra timetables and told the Rockford client when I expected to arrive in Harvard, IL. With the time of the alternative next train, in case I didn't show up on the expected one. I planned to get off the Kenosha line at Clyde and pick up the Harvard line train on the opposite side of the island platform, but the conductor would not hear of it. He still wore his old Northwestern badge. He said he's radio the Harvard train to hold for me at the Chicago Northwest Transportation Center, where the scheduled connecting time would otherwise be only two minutes. Naturally, I rode the cab car going into Chicago, looiking out the train door window, and we got to Clyde right on time, despite the continuing blizzard, and thus got to Chicago a few minutes early, with clear signals all the way through the interlockings. So I told the Harvard train's conductor who I was, and found four seats on the lower level of a gallery car that were unocupied, with the conductor's permission reversed one to have two facing each other, put the two suit cases between to bridge the gap between, and slept pretty well stretched out all the way to Harvard, where my Rockford client was glad to see me right on time. But he said, "David, I know you plan on taking Metra back to Chicago to get your train back to New York, but I am going to drive you to take advantage of the time to get as much information as I can from you while you are here." Other than that the whole trip was by rail. We were again about four hours late going back to New York, and a friend on the train later told me the Boston section was so late they had to turn it at Worcester, and put Boston people on the Boston commuter system (unsure whether he meant bus or train!), while Amtrak paid for a taxi to take him and four other passengers to Providence.
I did indeed get the two jobs done and my firm was paid.

[eolafan]

Great story Dave, thanks. About twenty years ago I had a similar experience when I had just taken a new job in MD a few months earlier and my wife and five month old son were staying with family in NY and I was going to fly from BWI airport to N(LaGuardia) but a storm got in the way so I took Amtrak in the NEC from BWI station to Penn Station and then cabbed it to GCT where I boarded a Metro North train (not Metro North at that time as I recall, called something else), and got off at Bronxville where family picked me up, safe and sound. Yes, the train is a great way to "fly" if you have the option.