RailRoadFan.com

As per the Detroit News page at https://www.detroitnews.com/story/busin ... 869563001/, "Amtrak Midwest schedules change amid reduced travel demand."

Changes beginning Thursday, March 19, 2020:

• Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha corridor service reduced to four daily round-trips. Friday evening Hiawatha Train 343 also temporarily suspended.
• Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac Wolverine corridor service reduced to two daily round-trips.
• Chicago-Holland-Grand Rapids Pere Marquette daily round-trips suspended. Amtrak Thruway Bus connections to and from Grand Rapids are available daily via Kalamazoo.
• No changes to Chicago-East Lansing-Port Huron Blue Water round-trips or Kansas City-Jefferson City-St. Louis Missouri River Runner corridor services.
• Some Amtrak Thruway Bus routes will have service modifications.

Amtrak has a page at https://www.amtrak.com/alert/nec-modified-schedule.html that mentions changed schedules (including more than just the Northeast Corridor).
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Garry K

For a minute there playing around on Amtrak's site, it appeared as if there were some wonky things happening with the eastbound trip, but now it is only showing 352 Eastbound and 351 westbound starting tomorrow. That will bring your train count on the AML down from 8-12 in most areas to 2-6 at the most. With Wayne Assembly closing its doors this afternoon, it is only a matter of time before that traffic slows down too (at least on the automotive side).

I think the article I saw on Mlive said Wolverine Line is down to two trains each direction daily today then 1 each direction starting Saturday. Due to a lack of demand, which is completely understandable.

Schedule cut down started today, emails quiet all day other than 351 and 352.

I wonder if, or how, this might affect the schedule of B25...

Well today on the first day of their running with the change, B25 was by 30W at 0830. Sounded like a decent length train.

The new schedule change shouldn't effect them at all as the psgr trains are still running on their advertised schedule.....there have been times when they ran ahead of 351 back to Jackson and then like today, they ran behind it....just depends on what work needs done

Buster Manning wrote:The new schedule change shouldn't effect them at all as the psgr trains are still running on their advertised schedule.....there have been times when they ran ahead of 351 back to Jackson and then like today, they ran behind it....just depends on what work needs done

I agree I don't think the trains will run on a different schedule. With that said, it isn't as much due to the passenger operations as it is due to freight operations. 351 and 352 are the only Wolverine trains still operating on their schedule, as it the Blue Water. the other trains in Michigan are annulled until further notice. This does provide some opportunity for the freight railroads to move schedules around. Would they move schedules around though. Given the push towards PSR and the crew assignments for the railroads, it doesn't make sense to change schedules during a two week or three week period. If this was a 6 month or longer situation, yes then you might see a shift, but two or three weeks, or even a month or two won't give the freight railroads any benefit to change the schedule.

With all that said, it might give crews a bit of extra time to work customers that they otherwise would need to be out of the way of passenger traffic for. A company like Chelsea Grain Company might get a bit of extra time because the freight operations don't have to be out of the way of the passenger train as they normally would. (Although, they generally don't have an issue due to the Chelsea Siding nearby and Chelsea Grain hasn't had cars in several weeks.).

Pretty sure Chelsea Grain is kaput....haven't heard anything recently if this place will re-open with new ownership or if at all for that matter....

My best guess is crews wouldn’t be giving any extra “work” time at customers, if anything it would be A “slower” work pace.. that’s if I had to wager a guess. B25 doesn’t serve any customers on the route IIRC. B44 served Chelsea’s/ jiffy at night last I knew (that may have changed though).

Ypsi wrote:My best guess is crews wouldn’t be giving any extra “work” time at customers, if anything it would be A “slower” work pace.. that’s if I had to wager a guess. B25 doesn’t serve any customers on the route IIRC. B44 served Chelsea’s/ jiffy at night last I knew (that may have changed though).

I think either train can serve Chelsea. I have seen Chelsea grain being served in the morning before by the westbound train from Wayne.

Also, I think what you mean by slower is the same thing I meant by extra. The crew wont be as rushed to get service done as they otherwise might be with additional passenger traffic.

chapmaja wrote: Also, I think what you mean by slower is the same thing I meant by extra. The crew wont be as rushed to get service done as they otherwise might be with additional passenger traffic.

Probably. There is never really a reason to work "fast" on the AML. The times they are serving customers never really interfere with Amtrak meet times. During the day 350 and 353 can meet at a number of locations and not have to worry about freight interference. Same with 355 and 352 (though they are slated to meet on the Townline- CP28 Double track most of the time. B25 and the evening locals out of Jackson should rarely be in the way of regular Amtrak service.

Buster Manning wrote:Pretty sure Chelsea Grain is kaput....haven't heard anything recently if this place will re-open with new ownership or if at all for that matter....

You are correct, sort of. I did not realize they had relinquished the grain license. There were two reasons for this. A loss of business due to the yet unfinished pipeline work along Dexter-Chelsea Rd, which limited access for trucks coming from M-52. Second was the poor growing season as a result of the very wet Spring weather.

There might be no one on the trains, but at least MofW should be productive:

https://www.wmuk.org/post/amtrak-travel ... s#stream/0