The ''Great River'' is a planned

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

intercity passenger train Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that run services that connect cities over longer distances than commuter or regional trains. There is no precise definition of inter-city rail; its meaning may vary from country ...

that will operate daily between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, and

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, via

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Service is expected to begin in 2024 under the Amtrak Midwest brand. The train will supplement the long-distance ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

'', serving the same stations but with higher reliability and more convenient departure times. As an extension of an existing Chicago–Milwaukee ''

Hiawatha Service The ''Hiawatha Service'', or simply ''Hiawatha'', is an 86-mile (138 km) train route operated by Amtrak on the western shore of Lake Michigan between Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, the name was historically applied to ...

'' train, the ''Great River'' will double Amtrak service frequency between Milwaukee and Saint Paul. The western part of the route will run along the bank of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, for which the train is named (''Misi-ziibi'' means "Great River" in

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

). The train will also cross the

Wisconsin River The Wisconsin River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At approximately 430 miles (692 km) long, it is the state's longest river. The river's name, first recorded in 1673 by Jacques Marquette as "Meskous ...

at Wisconsin Dells, a popular tourist destination.

Background

Originally, the Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago (TCMC) Corridor was operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Milwaukee Road ran numerous passenger trains from Chicago to St. Paul and beyond including the famous ''

Twin Cities Hiawatha The ''Twin Cities Hiawatha'', often just ''Hiawatha'', was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as the Milwaukee Road), and traveled from Chicago to the Twin Cities. The original ...

'' and ''

Olympian Hiawatha The ''Olympian'' and its successor the ''Olympian Hiawatha'' were passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road") between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. The ''Olympian'' operated fro ...

''. When Amtrak took over intercity passenger trains in 1971, only the ''

'' continued serving the corridor. For a time, the ''

North Coast Hiawatha The ''North Coast Hiawatha'' was a streamlined passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. Operating from 1971 to 1979, the train was a successor to the Northern Pacific Railway's ''North Coast Limited ...

'' and the ''

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude tha ...

'' served this route as well. , the ''Empire Builder'' continues to run daily, while the ''Hiawatha'' service runs seven additional round trips per day between Chicago and Milwaukee. The TCMC project began in 2015 after the conclusion of a feasibility report by Amtrak. Based on the favorable ridership and revenue projections

MnDOT The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT, ) oversees transportation by all modes including land, water, air, rail, walking and bicycling in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The cabinet-level agency is responsible for maintaining the state' ...

led a Phase 1 study in cooperation with

WisDOT The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin responsible for planning, building and maintaining the state's highways. It is also responsible for planning transportation in the state ...

IDOT The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is a state agency in charge of state-maintained public roadways of the U.S. state of Illinois. In addition, IDOT provides funding for rail, public transit and airport projects and administers fuel ...

, the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority and the FRA to analyze service alternatives, infrastructure upgrades and anticipated costs. The Phase 2 study was led by WisDOT to complete the environmental review and prepare a Service Development Plan. Schedule delays from Seattle to St. Paul have been cited as part of the interest in having a reliable departure time from St. Paul. Infrastructure upgrades for the project are required in La Crosse, La Crescent, Winona and St. Paul. The total capital cost is $53.3 million, which has been fully funded by federal grants, WisDOT and MnDOT. The project is scheduled to begin construction in 2023 and begin operations with one train in 2023. The TCMC service is anticipated to be the first phase of additional Amtrak service across Wisconsin and Minnesota with eventual extensions to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

Eau Claire, Wisconsin Eau Claire (; ) (French for "clear water") is a city mostly located in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat, and with a small portion in Chippewa County, Wisconsin. It had a population of 69,421 in 2020, making it the stat ...

, and

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

. In a public meeting on December 1, 2022, an Amtrak representative stated that the service was expected to start by summer 2023 with the name ''Great River''. A paper by the Wisconsin Legislature's Legislative Fiscal Bureau, published on June 6, 2023, for the legislature's Joint Committee on Finance, estimated that ''Great River'' service would start in September 2023, with related construction to improve service beginning in early 2024 and ending in mid-to-late 2025. However, in fall 2023 the estimated start date of the ''Great River'' slipped to 2024.

Operation

The ''Great River'' train is planned to make 13 total stops from Chicago to St. Paul. Westbound, the journey will take 7 hours and 11 minutes, while it will take 7 hours 27 minutes eastbound. Each direction, the train will have a 5 minute stop in Milwaukee. The train will be not be a completely new service, but will rather extend an existing ''

'' train from Milwaukee to St. Paul and back. The trains that will be extended are numbers 333 and 340. Train 333 will depart Chicago at 11:05 am and arrive St. Paul at 6:16 pm. Train 340 will depart St. Paul at 11:47 am and arrive in Chicago at 7:14 pm. An eventual re-route through

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

is in the long term plans for the ''Great River'' route. This change in routing would likely follow the Wisconsin & Southern

Watertown Subdivision The Watertown Subdivision or Watertown Sub is a railway line in Wisconsin operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) through its primary United States subsidiary, the Soo Line Railroad. It meets CP's Tomah Subdivision in the west in Portage a ...

and Canadian Pacific Kansas City's M&P Subdivision bypassing the Columbus station which has been considered the Madison stop along the route. Ridership is projected to be 124,000 passengers per year in 2024. An extension of the route to Target Field station in Minneapolis, and possibly St. Cloud has been proposed.

Route and stops

References

{{Twin Cities Transit Passenger rail transportation in Illinois Passenger rail transportation in Wisconsin Passenger rail transportation in Minnesota Proposed railway lines in Illinois Proposed railway lines in Minnesota 2024 in rail transport Proposed Amtrak routes