Racine County to see more Amtrak service in 2024

STURTEVANT — Racine and Kenosha area residents can expect additional Amtrak passenger train service from here starting in 2024.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and the state transportation departments of Minnesota and Illinois earlier this month completed the funding for a second daily, round-trip passenger train linking Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.). That new train is planned to stop at the Sturtevant Amtrak Depot, 9900 E. Exploration Court.

The planned new service is called Twin Cities Milwaukee Chicago (TCMC). The new train’s formal name, schedule and fare structure will be announced closer to its starting date, which is still to be determined, according to WisDOT.

Sturtevant – Amtrak’s stop for Racine and Kenosha counties – is currently served by seven daily round trips of the Amtrak Hiawatha Service trains that link Chicago and Milwaukee.

WisDOT projections call for 124,200 passengers to ride the new train in its first year of service.

Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman, told the Racine County Eye’s partners at Today’s TMJ4 that the new train will complement the railroad’s long-distance Empire Builder train, which provides daily roundtrips between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest cities of Seattle and Portland.

“There’s enough population, there’s enough interest, there’s enough demand across this part of Wisconsin, the rest of Wisconsin, and up the Mississippi River to have more than one choice a day each way,” Magliari said.

The Empire Builder stops at Milwaukee and eight other cities on its 411-mile trip between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Among the stops are Columbus, Wisconsin Dells, Tomah and La Crosse in Wisconsin and Winona in Minnesota. That train does not stop at Sturtevant, however. The new Amtrak service, however, will make it possible for passengers who board in Racine County to travel directly to the Twin Cities or any of the intermediate stops.

$53 million price tag; better reliability

Amtrak’s Magliari said the trains will travel at a top speed of 79 miles per hour, making the total TCMC corridor travel time 7.5 hours from start to finish. That’s about an hour longer than driving without making a single stop.

More important to Amtrak and transportation planners, is improving the train service reliability.

Magliari noted that the Empire Builder’s lengthy eastbound trip from the Pacific Northwest often comes with significant delays. That problem is expected to be alleviated with the new train having a dedicated Chicago-Twin Cities route.

WisDOT’s planning summary makes similar points. In addition to providing better on-time train service to business and student travelers, the new train will:

The TCMC Service carries a $53 million price tag. A $31.8 million Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Consolidated Railroad Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grant is covering the final design and construction of required track and signal improvements to the rail line used by the passenger trains and freight trains of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) Railroad. Amtrak has committed $5 million to the project. Wisconsin’s share is $6.2 million while Minnesota is kicking in $10 million.

In addition, a $12.6 million (FRA) Restoration & Enhancement Program grant, awarded in May 2020, will offset the new train’s cost of operations for the first three years.

Lengthy planning process

The TCMC train service has been in the works since 2002 when transportation officials in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois requested that Amtrak determine the feasibility of a second, state-supported round-trip passenger train between Chicago and the Twin Cities.

Amtrak’s findings, completed in 2015, indicated that ridership and revenue were positive. That kicked off more rounds of planning the TCMC service between 2016 and 2018 which included additional analysis and conceptual engineering plans. The project’s environmental impact documentation was completed in 2021 and final designs were wrapped up earlier this year.

In addition to the three state transportation departments, the TCMC passenger rail project’s partner agencies are the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, La Crosse Area Planning Commission and the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority.

Widespread support for new Amtrak corridor

The Federal Railroad Administration received 41 letters of support for the new TCMC corridor train service from organizations, businesses and elected officials in all three states.

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave was among those who provided written support for the project.

“For those not traveling by personal vehicle, there are a lack of transportation options for travel to and from smaller cities within the TCMC corridor,” including in Racine County,” Delagrave wrote in September 2020. “While commercial bus and airline services are available, these do not fully serve the travel demand between these smaller cities and the larger cities.”

Delagrave added that the TCMC project “fills regional transportation system gaps, provides an alternative that is cost-efficient to implement, operate and maintain, responds to increases in population and economic growth, integrates with Hiawatha service – which has a stop in Racine County – and avoids travel time delays.”

Good timing

The timing for the new service appears to be good, Amtrak officials say.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Amtrak ridership is up 15% per pre-pandemic levels. The passenger rail provider added extra cars and scheduled extra trains to handle the Thanksgiving weekend travel volume.

“I think it’s because people enjoy taking the train. It’s convenient, it’s comfortable, flexible. And certainly, it’s not easy to fly or drive these days,” Stephen Gardner, Amtrak CEO told the newspaper.

President Joe Biden could soon sign a bill to deliver funding for the Chicago Hub Improvement Project, which includes a major overhaul of Amtrak’s Union Station in Chicago. 

That project, which promises faster train travel between Midwest cities, aims to secure an $872.8 million grant from the FRA’s Federal/State Partnership program, made possible by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Sun-Times reported.