The largest passenger railroad service in U.S. is considering a proposal that, if approved, would see trains running directly from Chicago to Toronto and back.
As discussed at the Michigan Rail Conference in East Lansing last week, Amtrak wants to extend its Wolverine line — which currently sees trains moving back and forth between Pontiac, MI, and Chicago, IL, three times per day — all the way up to Canada's largest city.
A presentation slide shared by an official Michigan Department of Transportation Twitter account on Thursday shows that Amtrak wants to extend "at least one" Wolverine train into Ontario, "where it could continue as a VIA Rail Canada corridor service from Windsor/Walkerville to Toronto."
It won't happen overnight, and there's plenty of work to be done in order for the train service to work, including the construction of a new border processing facility.
A slide from an @Amtrak presentation discussing proposed Chicago to Toronto rail service. #MichiganRailConference pic.twitter.com/sFiH7KjTDE
— MDOT Rail (@MDOT_Rail) August 8, 2019
Amtrak also noted during the presentation that it would need to work out partnership agreements with multiple railroads, upgrade portions of the track between the Windsor Tunnel Portal and VIA Rail's Walkerville Station, as well as determine a "slot" through the rail tunnel between Detroit and Windsor.
"For many of our regional routes, our primary competition is the automobile," said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari to Streetsblog USA this week.
"As anyone who has driven between here in Chicago and Toronto over the years including me knows, there has to be a better way than slogging across I-94 (and I-69) and then the 401 (or 402)."
Amtrak has already submitted a funding request to America's federal government for the restoration of train service between Toronto and Detroit — a route that was cancelled in 1971.
As it stands now, people who want to travel between Toronto and Chicago via land can take a four-hour train ride to the U.S./Canada border, take the Detroit-Windsor tunnel bus across, and then jump on another train for roughly five-and-a-half hours.
It's either that, a much slower version involving Greyhound buses, or finagling yourself the use of a car.
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
Obvious problems with this concept include:
ReplyDelete1) Amtrak finagled a congressional act called PRIIA requiring states to pay for all passenger trains running under 750 miles. Could Michigan foot the bill without Illinois and Indiana? Who pays for Windsor-Toronto portion?
2) How much time will be lost not just in post 9/11 customs, but just changing out all products in the cafe car between America and Canada?
3) How will Amtrak find a minimum of 2 consists to dedicate to this service?
4) Given that Amtrak and CN do not see eye-to-eye on current routes CN operates in U.S(negotiations currently before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board)., how will that impact negotiations for timely access thru the St. Clair Tunnel and between Windsor-Toronto?