THE SECOND TRAIN TO THE CITIES RETURNS.

My attitude toward it has been "I'll believe it when I see it."  Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I have seen it.

It was 43 years in the making, but the Chicago-Twin Cities corridor finally has a second Amtrak passenger train.

In ceremonies in Chicago, St. Paul and intermediate points today, Amtrak and state, local, and federal official marked the first run of the Borealis, new daily service between Chicago Union Station and St. Paul Union Depot. It is sponsored by the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

It was Oct. 25, 1981, when Amtrak discontinued the overnight North Star between Chicago and Midway Station in St. Paul due to funding issues (the North Star segment from St. Paul to Duluth lasted until 1985). That left only the Empire Builder on the route over the last 43 years.

The Builder is an overpurposed train, catering to local travellers along Highway 2 as well as recreational travellers for Glacier Park and the Pacific Northwest, and a restoration of the old Chicago - Fargo - Winnipeg corridor is an idea that won't go away.

I have a few other ideas, which will be in abeyance for a while.  The festivities at St. Paul illustrated precisely how overpurposed the Builder is.

The Borealis operates eastbound 3 hours after the Empire Builder, departing St. Paul at 11:50 a.m. Westbound the train departs Chicago three [four — Ed.] hours before the Builder at 11:05 a.m. It makes all the Empire Builder’s stops, as well as at Milwaukee Airport and Sturtevant, Wis. — stations served by Amtrak’s Hiawathas. The normal consist for the train will be four Horizon coaches and an Amfleet café car, which also has business class seating.

Waiting to take a ride on the first trip was Twin Cities resident Tim Vitelli. “It gives me another option to get to Chicago,” Vitelli said. “I take a lot of trips to Chicago on Amtrak, and this additional train and additional frequency is good news. I think there are a lot of people who get frustrated with the Empire Builder’s timekeeping, so having a train that starts in St. Paul is a big win for everybody.”

Vitelli’s words were prophetic. As crowds began to gather for the Borealis inauguration ceremonies, the eastbound Empire Builder departed for Chicago at 10:08 a.m. – an hour and 18 minutes late.

The inaugural trips have brought spectators and boosters to trackside along with the passengers and photographers.

The inaugural service featured a locomotive and five cars populated by train geeks, local officials and lawmakers, Amtrak officials and workaday travelers. The train clacked and swayed and whistled along a moody Mississippi River in Minnesota. Enthusiastic crowds greeted the Borealis at the Red Wing and Winona stations. At La Crosse, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers climbed aboard.

The train appeared to skirt a menacing weather system that threatened Minnesota and Wisconsin in the morning. It sliced through farmland with sprouting crops, the big river's backwaters, industrial parks and front and backyards providing an unparalleled, almost private, view of Middle America.

Mental health train rides might be one source of ridership.

Jerome Christenson boarded in Winona, where he's a member of the city council, with his wife Mary Farrell, with a plan to ride to La Crosse for a beer, getting back on the train later in the afternoon. Just because they could. "I've waited almost 50 years to do this," he said.

That Dakotan service is still a possibility.

"We're ecstatic," said Jay Severance, a board member of the rail advocacy group All Aboard Minnesota. Successful Borealis service will make it easier for other passenger rail service to move forward, he said, including the Northern Lights Express between the Twin Cities and Duluth and an extension of Borealis service to Fargo/Moorhead.

Ultimately, though, it's going to be on Amtrak to provide the dependability.

Henry Harteveldt, a San Francisco-based travel industry analyst, said more transportation options are "always welcome, provided they are safe, reliable, punctual and pleasant."

"Rail service can be easy and convenient when everything is working well," Harteveldt added. "Unfortunately, Amtrak has a history or trains not being as punctual as it would like, or its passengers expect."

Yes, we've been calling attention to that, repeatedly.  The new cars and diesels continue to have teething troubles, and concurrent with the debut of the Borealis trains, Amtrak has dropped checked baggage service on its Hiawathas.  Ever since the new cars arrived, they tend to operate with a new diesel on each end, while the rakes of Horizon cars have a diesel, not necessarily of the newest type, on the Milwaukee end, with a control trailer or cabbage car on the Chicago end.  Thus it's catch as catch can that your baggage can be checked on your train.  The Borealis?  No baggage car, at least not yet.