Can Amtrak connect to Detroit from Durand?

[BamaSubdivision94]

Between The Blue Water, The Pere Marquette, and The Wolverine the primary location is Chicago. Could it be possible to have a train connect to Detroit from Port Huron (like a Blue Water extra perhaps)? Can Detroit's station be accessed from CN because I think that would be pretty nice, not to mention more convenient.

Here's my reasoning: In a few years, I'll be attending CCS in Detroit and as a means of getting to and from there, I of course favor taking the train. I live in Saginaw, so unless we get Amtrak up here in the next few years (highly unlikely) gthen we have to rely on Flint to catch Amtrak. The basic question is, is there some way to get to Detroit from Flint via Amtrak and vice-versa? Doesn't CN's line in D Town have an Amtrak station downtown anyway? So couldn't there be a train that could simply take the wye at Durand onto the Holly Sub, pick up passengers, at then proceed south?

[AARR]

At this time there are no passenger trains connecting Detroit with Durand or Port Huron.

There is a Port Huron to Chicago train in each direction.

There are three Pontiac to Chicago trains but they only go south from Pontiac to Detroit then west.

I am not aware of any talk about starting up passenger service between Detroit with Durand or Port Huron so you may be out of luck on this one.

[~Z~]

Take Amtrak from flint to battle creek, hop off, then take an eastbound Amtrak from BC to Detroit, and vice versa.

[Mark Rummel]

I'd love it too, of course, but we shouldn't hold our breathe waiting for it to happen.

I think there's a bus run from Flint to Detroit via Amtrak (?) and you can ride Saginaw to Flint, or straight to Detroit via bus, I believe.

Maybe we need a short-line Amtrak from the middle and upper parts of the state toward Detroit, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, and beyond. We CERTAINLY DO need an alternative to US-23 from Howell and Brighton and Lansing to Ann Arbor via rail -- it's a terrible daily drive.

Any other thoughts?

[bctrainfan]

We know there are no current passenger trains from Durand to the Detroit Amtrak station, but I think his question was more about whether there is a current direct track route between them if a train was to be started. Is their an existing straight forward route that could be used? I am not not really familiar with the lines in that area.

[SD80MAC]

Of course, the Holly Sub goes from Durand to Pontiac and ultimately Milwaukee Jct. in Detroit. Back in the GTW days, one could board a train in Detroit and head north to Durand and continue onto either Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Chicago or Canada. I want to say GTW operated a Detroit-Durand turn right up until Amtrak day to connect with the Chicago-Toronto Maple Leaf, but I might be wrong.

I've often wondered if one of the Wolverine service trains could be extended further north from Pontiac to Durand to connect with the Bluewater. However, the current Wolverine and Bluewater schedules don't exactly match up well enough to make any kind of a timely connection. It would also really only benefit passengers going east on the Bluewater route, because aside from Lansing, the Wolverines make the same stops west of Durand that the Bluewater does. And since the Bluwater only goes to Flint, Lapeer and Port Huron eastbound, driving to those places from Detroit makes more sense. If the Bluewater still went to Toronto, ala the International, then I could see a train from Detroit/Pontiac to Durand to connect with the Bluewater/International for those traveling to Canada.

[railohio]

Write your state legislators.

[Michael]

It would be nice to see service to Toledo restored so that you could further travel East or South. If you have to take a bus to Toledo (or some other connector) it seems like you should just take the bus the whole way.
This new MegaBus company http://us.megabus.com/ has extremely competitive prices.

[BamaSubdivision94]

Thanks for the input everyone.

Until further notice, I guess I'll take the advice of the one who said to transfer between the Blue Water and the Wolverine at Battle Creek. Besides the reported 2 hour wait, seems simple enough.