Evanstonian here who is a major proponent of the KRM. While the Hiawatha is the fastest way between Chicago and Milwaukee, it is lacking in terms of infill stations. The lake shore has much more TOD with four possible stops having transit centers at Evanston, Waukegan, Kenosha, and Racine.
I grew up in Evanston. There is no easy way to get from Union Station to the METRA thru Evanston. Also, The Milwaukee Road always had more riders than thw then C & NW line.
@@Robbi496 You don't have to route it thru Union Station if Amtrak isn't the operator. It can be a joint effort with both Metra and whatever authority is made to manage the KRM. Currently the UP-N has 50% more ridership than the MD-N and is the best in terms of ridership return.
Can you provide any updates on the Muskego Yards mainline project in Milwaukee and the Sangamon County Transportation center in Springfield ? Both are needed for improved service, and need funding now to proceed to construction. Same goes for CrossRail/CREATE. As an aside, it appears that the Corridor ID program, while creating a uniform process for identifying and funding routes, may have the side effect of delaying existing projects. Either that or else the Midwest is just getting short changed.
I of course want high-speed trains and I always encourage them whenever I can. But even at conventional rail speeds corridors that have their two terminus' separated by 300-800 miles would benefit greatly from having a minimum of three round trips a day. Imagine early a.m. departure. A midday departure and an overnight train.
There are a lot of commuter railcars out there these days, and riders haven't all returned yet after the pandemic, so it would be great to borrow some of those while new manufacturing gets spun up. I suspect that could only buffer things for a couple years, though. If only Chicago used something more modern than the Gallery cars...
It’s amazing what a massive difference the little things make. All they had to do was use the standard method of booking train tickets (as done in Europe), or airplane tickets and let you pick your seats on the train so that families and groups can sit together. Ruined our trip. 1 star. Won’t take the train again.
What is the Wisconsin High Speed Rail Alliance Coordinator name? I want to get involved in Wisconsin. Regional Planning groups are lobbyists for high highways.
