hygge

Your reasoning is completely false and discredits your argument that you have made ad nauseam over the last however many years. A street car is not just an "attraction" like the Mystery Spot in the UP. You should really get outside of GR and do some travelling. Have you even been to Toronto? I find it hard to believe that Queen Street, King Street, Dundas, ect would be so damn cool or pedestrian friendly without those streetcar lines. The only thing those street cars have been attracting are global investment capital along their respective routes. The street car lines are a vital piece of infrastructure for Toronto. You can look at an endless list of cities that have these systems. Street cars are nothing close to being a crappy tourist trap as you claim. Further, our BRT isn't really BRT in the claims you attach to it. The Silverline is really just an enhanced (slightly faster) bus system with less polluting, higher capacity, modern buses. For the record, I am a homeowner who lives on the border of downtown and heritage hill and will probably never use the Silverline, but I voted for the SL funding and I would do it again in a heart beat. I think it can be a vital piece of our transportation mix and make commutes along the line shorter and hopefully more enjoyable. I hope an enhanced system gets built to GVSU. Regardless, all the data and facts suggest that a 3 mile street car line would be a boon for downtown and the city as a whole... especially if it were mostly or all funded by private donations.

I use to use the Michigan City station, but Dune Park makes it even more efficient. Plus, it is a much nicer station with well lit parking. The hotel and metra combo is a good idea too, but there is something about riding into the city from the Hyde Park direction and being deposited right at the epicenter of the city. I know this is a stretch, but for some reason it reminds me of riding Metro North into Grand Central or even riding a commuter line into Shinjuku in Tokyo. It is a really cool experience that you cannot get in the US outside of NYC and maybe Philly.

It is difficult for Amtrak to compete under current conditions. With the siding being built from Amtrak owned tracks that end in Porter, IN to Chicago and the Englewood flyover in South Chicago, this will change the equation. Those are the remaining two bottlenecks and cause for delays. The bottleneck in Englewood, Chicago is currently top 5 worst choke points in the entire US rail system. If a siding could be built in the GR rail yards and the flyover built in New Buffalo, travel times would be down to around 3 hours and delays virtually eliminated. Speeds of 110mph would then be the norm on a large portion of the Pere Marq line (New Buffalo to Chicago). This does not include the new locomotives that are being built that will have an operating speed of 125mph. Megabus would still have to contend with traffic, weather, and construction delays that are endemic in this area. To be honest, I think Megabus serves a certain segment and works great. Megabus is fantastic for people without cars and those on a fixed income like students. The problem is most professionals and families probably would choose a more expensive option that had similar travel times and far less delays. Even if nothing were to change, the most efficient way to get to Chicago is driving to Northern Indiana and taking the South Shore line.

Thanks Walker. Yeah, I thought the most recent plan was to build the junction at Bangor as well, but I didnt see it on the updated MDOT list of projects and yet the track work to Kzoo was. So thats why I was confused. The listed price by MDOT for the Kzoo track work is only 37m and if that is anywhere close to accurate I think I would prefer that to the 20m junction at Bangor. It is unfortunate that we have Congressional representation from folks stuck in 1880 who have a Somalian model of governance. Neither of these projects will ever get done unless a senator or even the governor takes the lead.

^Nice pictures John. I am really excited for the Amtrak station. A modern and efficient fixed guideway system that can get you to a global city is a great thing for Grand Rapids. Projects like this, the Englewood Flyover in Chicago, the new 125mph locomotives, ect. are important pieces to the larger puzzle. Also, does anyone have information on the Pere Marquette being relocated to the tracks that lead to Kalamazoo? That would be great since we could hook into the upgraded track in Kalamazoo and also have a rail transportation choice to Kzoo. I remember a while back people talking about it here, but I thought that was only speculation. This is listed as a potential project by MDOT, which I did not realize they were even serious about it.

^ That is a great article Jeff, but arent there rules against the self gloss?

Does anyone have a status update on station construction? I thought work was going to be well underway by now but the site looks almost untouched as of a couple weeks ago. Supposedly it will be open in 2013, is that still realistic?