Amtrak is operating all available railcars and locomotives on trains to and from the Chicago area in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday travel season.
Fresh from ‘fall colours’ trips to and from the East Coast, the historic Amtrak ‘Great Dome’ rail car will provide a unique opportunity to experience city and prairie views to and from Chicago as it adds extra seating capacity to super-size the busy trains.
The dome car features an upper level with windows on all sides – as well as overhead – to provide passengers with panoramic views.
The dome section runs the full length of the car, a rare feature even when dome cars were more numerous on the nation’s railroads.
The dome car is scheduled to operate on the following Lincoln Service, Carl Sandburg/Illinois Zephyr, Wolverine Service and Illini/Saluki routes to and from St. Louis, Quincy, Detroit/Pontiac and Carbondale on the following dates: Trains 301 & 304 on Nov. 25, Trains 303 & 306 on Nov. 26, Train 305 on Nov. 22, Trains 300 & 352 on Nov. 23, Train 351 on Nov. 24, Train 393 on Nov. 27 and Train 390 on Nov. 28.
Seats in the dome car are not reserved and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Food service will be available in the dome car on Nov. 23, 24 and 26.
The heaviest single travel day of the year for Amtrak is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which set a record last year of 134,230 passengers for the day.
Amtrak also set a record last year by transporting 704,446 passengers for the holiday week. Amtrak anticipates similarly strong ridership for this year’s Thanksgiving travel.
Clearly such carriages on the preferred HS2 Route 4 would allow train passengers to enjoy the Chiltern ANOB without clogging up the local roads; there was once such a plan to provide a rail route through the Lake District for this purpose.
Every report from AMTRAK clearly demonstrates that Americans want an efficient national passenger rail system. Congress needs to listen to this and take action to meet the desires of the people. Some missing links that need scheduled trains are Chicago-Florida trains on two or three routes; a Vancouver to San Diego “through” train; transcontinental trains from Los Angeles/San Diego to New York/Boston; Seattle to New York/Boston; Maine to Florida; Florida to Toronto; Montreal to Florida; New Orleans to Jacksonville and Miami; Montreal/Toronto/Detroit/Chicago to Mexico City; Vancouver to Mexico City; Boston/New York via Atlanta/New Orleans/Houston to Mexico City; etc. Mexicans residing in the USA would flock to the Mexican trains for home visits. Clearly, Congress needs to take prompt positive aggressive action here!