The Michigan Line, sometimes known as the Chicago–Detroit Line, is a higher-speed rail corridor that runs between Porter, Indiana and

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

. It carries Amtrak's '' Blue Water'' and '' Wolverine'' services, as well as the occasional freight train operated by Norfolk Southern. Amtrak owns the section between Porter, Indiana, to

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

, the longest stretch of Amtrak-owned rail outside of the

Northeastern U.S. The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

The state of Michigan, through the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) owns the section between Kalamazoo and Dearborn, which it purchased from Norfolk Southern in December 2012. Norfolk Southern retains an exclusive trackage right for freight on the line. A short stretch of track in

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle C ...

is owned by

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

. The entire line was originally the mainline of the

Michigan Central Railroad The Michigan Central Railroad (reporting mark MC) was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in ...

. The entire corridor (including the portion owned by MDOT) is dispatched and maintained by Amtrak, which , is working to replace worn tracks and integrate the train signaling and communication systems.

History

In 2002, the section from Porter to Kalamazoo became the first passenger rail line in the United States to have positive train control (PTC) technology installed, specifically GE Transportation Systems' Incremental Train Control System (ITCS). In 2005, Amtrak received approval from the

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail saf ...

to run trains at up to . Most Amtrak trains outside of the Northeast are limited to due to federal regulations. Regular service at began from Porter to Kalamazoo on February 15, 2012. In November 2011, Michigan was awarded $150 million to buy Kalamazoo–Dearborn portion of the line from Norfolk Southern. Combined with a $196 million federal government grant announced the previous month to improve signaling and track quality, trains will be able to run at on 77% of the length of the Detroit–Chicago corridor. Before the track purchase and improvement grants occurred, Norfolk Southern was planning to allow track degradation to happen and to eventually reduce the allowable speeds to for passenger trains and its eight daily round-trip freight trains after 2012. On May 25, 2021, service at began between Kalamazoo and Albion.

Incidents

Despite the presence of the safety system on the Michigan Line, a derailment occurred just east of Niles, Michigan, on October 21, 2012, after a ''Wolverine'' train exited the main line and entered a freight yard due to a misaligned switch. The train had a green signal and was traveling at about when it hit the switch. The incident was investigated by 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 ...

and was found to be an Amtrak contractor's fault, caused by one of its employees improperly applying jumper wires to the signal system, bypassing safeguards that had been designed to prevent such an occurrence.

References

Notes

External links

{{Amtrak Passenger rail transportation in Michigan Passenger rail transportation in Indiana Railway lines in the United States Rail infrastructure in Michigan Rail infrastructure in Indiana