Amtrak's Borealis Westbound - Train 1333 CHI-MSP

[@yiffytimes]

Roughly 2 months ago I took the Borealis myself, it was a great trip and I took Coach.

[@StevesWanderlust]

Cool! I took a westbound trip in coach a few weeks sgo. That video will come around soon.

[@lwk4229]

This is a great video. Great narration, music and I like what you have to say about the rail system overall. I’m glad to see Amtrak expanding.

[@kevinmoynihan8087]

Great stuff…love the honest assessment…far more real than most travel videos….cant say I agree with all your Amtrak suggestions but that’s minor…

[@kevinrush4411]

I like the on-screen tags indicating names of locations and comments, in this video. Very useful.

[@BuilderJay]

Wow, they allowed fresh air/smoke stop in Winona.

[@StevesWanderlust]

Yeah, it was tightly timed on this run. Two minutes, by the conductor's watch!

[@Mazlooooooo]

Thanks for the video, well done! I'm taking this exact 11:10AM route next week & have booked a business class seat. Were you able to select your seat in the Amtrak system? Or is it a first-come, first-serve scenario? Any advice you have is appreciated. Excited to try out Amtrak for the first time!

[@StevesWanderlust]

Thank you! Borealis has first come first served seating. Bring some snack & drinks would be my advice!

[@ronclark9724]

Amtrak remains glued to the past policies where CONDUCTORS are the BOSS on a train and they decide who sits where when necessary, not the paying passengers...

[@marlopeterson8283]

It would be nice to extend Borealis to Fargo. Empire Builder goes through there in the middle of the night. Catching the train at a decent hour would be ideal. Further, Sunset Limited needs to become a daily train. ;)

[@mulad]

It looks like the advocacy group All Aboard Minnesota is focusing on a Fargo extension next. Some planning work has begun for adding service to the Twin Cities via Madison and Eau Claire (not sure if that's one or two trains) and service to Green Bay. There might be a demonstration train from Milwaukee to Green Bay for the NFL Draft next year, but it's hard to say how likely that is

[@StevesWanderlust]

I'd be interested to see if American View could make a tour of the other WI routes. Splitting the Borealis & Builder would build separate brands based on scenery not to mention additionsl cities served.

[@ronclark9724]

While it is nice Minneapolis-St. Paul has a second better timed service to Chicago, there are other cities that should have more and better timed services as well. The largest Amtrak FAILURE is NOT having multiple train services directly from Houston to Dallas. A collossal FAILURE without any doubt whatsoever, this failure is CRIMINAL... Two of the ten largest METROS, should I say five largest METROS, less than 250 miles apart SHOULD have multiple daily services, that is IF Amtrak desires to remain in existence for much longer... Amtrak's services in the second largest populated STATE sucks!

[@mulad]

@@ronclark9724 Yeah, the legislation that governs Amtrak has historically required states to step up with planning and funding for anything less than 750 miles (though the NEC is sort of an exception to that). Getting an individual state to commit to that has been hard enough, and anything requiring 2 or 3 states to work together has been exponentially more difficult. At least some of the recent infrastructure laws have created things like the Corridor ID program to help shepherd along the various state and regional plans that have been stuck in the doldrums forever. Unless of course democracy falls to pieces in six months

[@jrother]

I live in Hastings, evidently along the empire builder and borealis routes. It's a bummer to me that our towns like Hastings, Lake City, etc. Are super over and have no way to connect to a regional stop other than driving to the nearest stop. In a more ideal world, how would this connectivity be achieved?

[@StevesWanderlust]

I agree. This is another example of MN infrastructure planning sticking to established ridership locales. When the route underperforms they'll shift the blame elsewhere. They don't make better options a priority - just get it running with preexisting stops and hope for good results...

[@sniperdps]

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.

[@StevesWanderlust]

I'm sorry to hear that. I agree with you, there. Such a system is within Amtrak's capabilities, but they don't follow through at providing guest service at many levels.

[@Robbi496]

i believe that there is a connection between this train and CONO?

[@stanford2444]

What is CONO?

[@StevesWanderlust]

Yes, City of New Orleans would be a bookable connection. I'd consider it among the south coast services, and a fantastic train. My first sleeper experience in '08!

[@StevesWanderlust]

The City of New Orleans, the train once called Panama Limited.

[@stanford2444]

One of the connections I have looked at. And do able even if Borealis is 2 hours late. But it was 5 hours late the other day which I do not understand.

[@Robbi496]

@@stanford2444 Must have been something abnormal? It seems to do well most of the time?

[@kevinrush4411]

I agree with your comment starting at 24 minutes about people thinking about long term ramifications of their decisions and choosing to spend their money to encourage outcomes that align with their beliefs. "Support what you believe in".

[@johnchambers8528]

It is nice that Amtrak has added this service. It provides an additional train 34:43 on the route. Also since it starts in St. PaUl and Chicago the schedule should be more dependable. I live in Pennsylvania and we are supposed to also get another train on the New York City and Pittsburgh. Again this is an improvement since it’s good to have two trains instead of one. I have visited Minneapolis but had to use the Empire BUilder so I like having this option.

[@stanford2444]

Your observations are much like mine after riding it west (EB east). Union Station was probably the worst part of the trip. Maybe it is time to move the hub out of downtown and run a shuttle or Metra into center of the city. Also what of the option to run the trains half way, meet, transfer people and go back the way it came? Really like the earlier departure.

[@StevesWanderlust]

Borealis has a much better capability of making a halfway go-back trip happen on predictable timeframes. North Glenview could be a great transit hub for Amtrak, but they're not great at dipolmatic relations with suburbs nor exurbs.

[@stanford2444]

@@StevesWanderlust Was thinking farther west, if you could get half the trains out of Union Station there would be more room. All you do with North Glenview is change where the Empire Builder , Borealis and Hiawaitha(sp) start. Maybe if you had 3 sub hubs: North, West and Southeast. That way someone that is going through, wouldn't even need to go to Union Station.

[@andykillsu]

Union Station is fine, its just especially bad right now because of the construction they are doing. Once it is completed, things will go more or less back to normal.

[@ronclark9724]

@@stanford2444 Unfortunately the train advocates proclaim the glory of downtown to downtown services, not the suburbs...

[@johnchambers8528]

People usually prefer a one seat ride. Making them transfer would reduce ridership.

[@jslasher1]

Amtrak could negotiating with the track owner for access.

[@johndonlon1611]

Yep, the scenery is really ugly and dull all the way on this trip when compared to the BN's old Mainstreeter route that went dead west to the Mississippi River and and then north along the river to Portage and Red Wing. Now, that was a scenic ride! Shame Amtrak couldn't have done this.

[@StevesWanderlust]

I've read about that route and I would agree, it sounds awesome.

[@johndonlon1611]

@@StevesWanderlust You better believe it was and still is. There was a reason the Twin Cities Zephyr and the Mainstreeter had dome coaches. The scenery was terrific year around, especially with the Wisconsin Palisades on one side and the Mississippi River on the other.

[@ronclark9724]

Unfortunately that route doesn't serve Milwaukee... The Milwaukee Road route brings MORE passengers. After all this train is a extension of a already existing train...

[@jslasher1]

“Borealis” is such an idiotic name for a train that operates during daylight hours for most of the year. Why not name it after one of the streamliners that previously operated over the route?

[@KU84dh37]

Steve, Your 'back ground music' "IS" too loud [ on, so far, the two videos of yours I watched, It 'ain't' necessary!!!!!

[@StevesWanderlust]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll level it down starting next week. The long form extra videos of the trips will be natural sound.