HERE COMES THAT SECOND TRAIN TO THE CITIES.

With the Fall, 1971 timetable Amtrak introduced a second daily Chicago - Twin Cities service.  The Empire Builder to the West Coast was accompanied by a Hiawatha that on days it ran to the West Coast through Montana senator Mike Mansfield's (a Democrat majority leader) principal cities was the North Coast Hiawatha.  The North Coast Hiawatha stopped running as part of the 1979 Carter era retrenchments, although an overnight Chicago - Duluth North Star offered that second frequency for another year or so.

Passenger Rail advocates of the Upper Mississippi Valley have wanted at a minimum that second train.  I've had that skepticism born of years of politicized train service.  "I suppose I'm asking too much even for journalists not to describe trains as "chugging" let alone a serious corridor service extending from Chicago as far as Fargo or Grand Forks with multiple frequencies between the Cities and Chicago."  Earlier this year, the consultants got to wet their beaks with all sorts of feasibility studies for a return of the Chicago and North Western network to Wisconsin.  That second frequency between Chicago and the Cities was included.  "The only train that is even close to entering service is that Great River (think Morning Hiawatha northbound, Afternoon Hiawatha southbound) and I'll believe it when I see it running."

Dear reader, I have an opportunity to believe.

Tickets are now available for a second daily Amtrak service between the Twin Cities and Chicago, via Milwaukee: new state-sponsored Borealis trains originate from St. Paul at midday and from Chicago in the late morning. Travelers seeking a more comfortable, sustainable and productive choice than driving will have double the current rail options, starting May 21, 2024.

AmtrakBorealis coach fares start at $41 each way between St. Paul and Chicago for adults, with everyday discounts for children ages 2-12, students, seniors, veterans, military personnel and families, groups, and others.

Amtrak Borealis trains will offer Coach and Business Class in addition to a café car featuring regional items. Customers will enjoy wide reclining seats with ample legroom, no middle seats, free Wi-Fi, and views of the Mississippi River between St. Paul and La Crosse, Wisc., in daylight in both directions across Wisconsin.

Neither the Amtrak release nor a Trains article offer any explanation for the choice of Borealis as the train name.  As far as I know, that name is new for a named train in the United States, and it might be the first Latin allusion in a train name.  The Trains article offers operational information.

The train, using Horizon coaches and a café car, will offer Business Class service. It will substitute for one of the current Hiawatha round trips on the Chicago-Milwaukee portion of its trip, and will stop in all cities served by the Empire Builder between Chicago and St. Paul.  Tickets are now on sale on the Amtrak website.

The westbound Borealis, train No. 1333, is slated to depart Chicago at 11:05 a.m., arriving in St. Paul at 6:39 p.m. Its eastbound counterpart, train No. 1340, departs St. Paul at 11:50 a.m. and arrives in Chicago at 7:14 p.m. Full schedules are below.

The timings and train numbers reflect that both schedules are extensions of existing services, Milwaukee trains 333 westbound and 340 eastbound, which makes sense as the planned paths of freight trains take into account the existing service east of Milwaukee.  In the declining years of Hiawatha service on The Milwaukee Road, the westbound Morning Hiawatha left Chicago at 10.30 am, arriving St. Paul at 6.25 pm; while the eastbound Afternoon Hiawatha left St. Paul at 12.40 pm, arriving Chicago at 7.25 pm.  That's not an invidious comparison: today's Canadian Pacific is single-track with long controlled sidings west of Milwaukee and no cab signalling.  In another nod to the past, the trains meet somewhere between Wisconsin Dells and Tomah: should the people angling for more regional trains in Wisconsin know their ferroequinology, they might see the merits of a regional train for and from Wausau being able to exchange with both Borealis trains at New Lisbon.

I am troubled, though, by the equipment utilization.  A train that might do a Chicago - Milwaukee - Chicago turn in the morning (as the current 329-332 turning to 333) before running to the Cities as 1333 then lays over in the Cities before running to Chicago the next day as 1340.  (Here's a sponsorship opportunity for a Milwaukee radio station, anybody else remember Thirteen-Forty-W-R-I-T?)  The current rotation of stock has two rakes, with the set that arrives as 340 returning on 341 and staying overnight in Milwaukee, while the set that arrives as 342 ties up in Chicago and might form 329 the next morning.  But if there's a cafe car along for the ride on 329-332, will riders start agitating for a return of bar cars on the Milwaukee service?

It's probably too much to ask, right now, that the trains do an overnight turn with a sleeping car, although that is something we will take up in a future post.

For now, there might be a train trip into Wisconsin in my future.