The ''Pere Marquette'' is a
passenger train
A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...
operated by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
as part of its
Michigan Services
''Michigan Services'' are three Amtrak passenger rail routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with the Michigan cities of Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Detroit, and stations en route. The group is a component of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiativ ...
on the route between
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
, and
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. It is funded in part by the
Michigan Department of Transportation
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate ...
and is train 370 eastbound and train 371 westbound. The westbound train leaves Grand Rapids during the morning rush, with the eastbound train leaving Chicago after the afternoon rush, enabling same-day business travel between the two cities.
The train is named for
a named train of the defunct
Pere Marquette Railway
The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...
, and in turn for Pere Marquette, Michigan, an early name for
Ludington.
The town was named for
Father Jacques Marquette, a French explorer of the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
region.
Route
The ''Pere Marquette'' operates over
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
and
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
trackage:
*Norfolk Southern between Chicago and
Porter, Indiana
Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 4,858 at the 2010 census. Porter is in the Indiana Dunes ecosystem, which played a role in the creation of The Nature Conservancy, and ins ...
*CSX between Porter, Indiana and Grand Rapids
History
The original ''
Pere Marquette'' was a named train of the
Pere Marquette Railway
The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...
, which ran between Detroit and Grand Rapids six times a day. It was extended to Chicago in 1947 when the Pere Marquette Railway was absorbed into the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...
. Service ended on April 30, 1971, the day before
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
took over intercity rail service in the country.
![Pere Marquette at Grand Rapids station, September 1991](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Pere_Marquette_at_Grand_Rapids_station%2C_September_1991.jpg)
Amtrak revived the name for a new Grand Rapids–Chicago service on August 5, 1984, with financial support from the state of Michigan. Initially it served Chicago, Hammond–Whiting, New Buffalo, St. Joseph, Bangor, Holland and Grand Rapids. Service at
Hammond–Whiting ended April 29, 2001 (although the
Wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...
still stops there). Service at New Buffalo ended October 26, 2009, when a new station opened on a different alignment.
The 1984-opened station in Grand Rapids was replaced with
Vernon J. Ehlers Station on a new spur line in 2014.
On November 30, 2007, the southbound ''Pere Marquette'' collided with a Norfolk Southern freight train in Chicago, injuring 71 people. The
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
(NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the collision was the failure of the Amtrak engineer to interpret the signal at Englewood interlocking correctly and Amtrak's failure to ensure that the engineer had the competence to interpret signals correctly across the different territories over which he operated. The NTSB released its findings on the crash on March 31, 2009.
In March 2020, the ''Pere Marquette'' was suspended indefinitely as part of a round of service reduction in response to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. The train returned on June 29 with the eastbound run to Grand Rapids, with full service in both directions resuming on June 30. In the interim, Grand Rapids' only connection to the national system was an
Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transit ...
that connected with the ''
Wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...
'' at Kalamazoo.
Around 2021, MDOT initiated the design and engineering needed to connect the Amtrak Michigan Line to the CSX tracks north of
New Buffalo station. This would allow the ''Pere Marquette'' to serve New Buffalo, providing a connection to ''Blue Water'' and ''Wolverine Service'' trains. It would also allow for service on the ''Pere Marquette'' between
New Buffalo, Michigan
New Buffalo is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,883 at the time of the 2010 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is wate ...
and
Porter, Indiana
Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 4,858 at the 2010 census. Porter is in the Indiana Dunes ecosystem, which played a role in the creation of The Nature Conservancy, and ins ...
.
Equipment
A typical ''Pere Marquette'' consists of:
*One
Siemens Charger
The Siemens Charger is a family of diesel-electric passenger locomotives designed and manufactured by Siemens Mobility for the North American market.
There are five variants of the Charger, tailored for different operators and types of service ...
locomotive or
GE P42DC
General Electric Genesis (officially trademarked GENESIS) is a series of passenger diesel locomotives produced by GE Transportation, then a subsidiary of General Electric. Between 1992 and 2001, a total of 321 units were built for Amtrak, Metro ...
(lead)
*Three
Superliner coaches
Station stops
References
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{Amtrak routes
Amtrak routes
Passenger rail transportation in Illinois
Passenger rail transportation in Indiana
Passenger rail transportation in Michigan
West Michigan
Railway services introduced in 1984