&First FastestAutumn 2009 • $795

Sharing the experience ofrailways past and present

2 | First&Fastest Autumn 2009

AMTRAK —The Interurban of the 21st Century?By Norman Carlson

Over 100 years ago, around the priorturn of the century, the rage inlocal transportation was the elec-

tric interurban railway. The term “interur-ban” is derived from Latin for betweencities. The origin of the word is credited toCharles L. Henry, an Indiana state senatorwho became a U. S. Congressman andfounder of the Union Traction Companyof Indiana, which became a 400-mile sys-tem in central Indiana.Interurban electric railways were the

transition between the horse and buggyand the automobile, a technology that wasbeing introduced at the same time. Inaddition to removing the isolation of ruralareas, the interurbans brought electricityto towns and villages along the way as wellas to the farms in their territory. The great-est development of the interurbans wasfound in the Midwest, particularly Illinois,Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.Let us fast forward approximately 110

years and consider the current proposalsfor the Midwest Regional Rail System, alsoknown as the Chicago Hub Network ofAmtrak.The ultimate plan is focused on trains,

with speeds up to 110 mph, traversing thefive states mentioned above plus Iowa,

well known for its interurbans built tosteam road standards, Missouri, a state thathad virtually no interurbans, andMinnesota, a state that is embracing lightrail and commuter rail services in theMinneapolis-St. Paul area. Conceptually,history is repeating itself. Rail is beinglooked upon as the solution for local (lightrail and suburban commuter operations)and regional (interurban) transportation.Among the ironies of history is that

when building interurbans was the rage,Henry Ford could only raise $28,000 of the$100,000 he was seeking to build automo-biles. In 1908, W. C. Durant, the founder ofGeneral Motors, told a banker that heenvisioned the production of 500,000 auto-mobiles annually. He was escorted to thedoor. As this is written Chrysler has justemerged from bankruptcy and GeneralMotors is in what is hoped to be a veryshort bankruptcy reorganization. TheUnited States government has found itselfto be the investment banker for the domes-tic automobile manufacturing industry.The interurbans were as much a victim

of economic times as they were of technol-ogy advances in the automotive industryand the advent of paved roads. Lookingback from the perspective of the world

economy in 2007 and 2008, we have first-hand experience to understand what hap-pened in 1903 and 1907. The first and sec-ond bursts of interurban building wereended, respectively, by those two financialpanics. Virtually all that was left of theindustry was wiped out by the GreatDepression.In 2009, only the South Shore Line

passenger service between South Bend,Indiana, and Chicago remains. This for-mer Chicago South Shore & South Bendpassenger service, now owned and oper-ated by the Northern Indiana CommuterTransportation District (NICTD) was anunlikely survivor. It spent more of theinitial years of its existence in financialdifficulty or bankruptcy than out of suchdistress.Another historical footnote is that the

last Vice President and General Managerof the privately-owned South Shore rail-road operating passenger service, MichaelW. Franke, is at the center of the newactivity in the development of regional railservices. After serving as the VicePresident and Chief Engineer of theBurlington Northern Santa Fe, Mike isnow Amtrak’s Assistant Vice President forState Partnerships. He is involved in the

�Lincoln Service southbound train, with locomotive 113 in the lead, is crossing the Kankakee River atWilmington, Illinois.Wilmington is approxi-mately 15 miles south of Joliet on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor. A short distance ahead is the beginning of what will be the 110 mph territory tothe north end of Springfield.—Paul Burgess photo

development and implementation of allthe regional services other than those onthe Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Is Mike’sexperience the bridge between the interur-ban industry of the past and the interurbanindustry of the future?First let us look at some of the ridership

statistics. In its 2008 and 2007 fiscal years,each ending September 30th, Amtrak car-ried a total of 28,716,000 passengers and25,847,000 passengers respectively, anincrease of 11.1%. Of these totals only4,170,000 passengers in 2008 and 3,819,000passengers in 2007 rode on the long dis-tance trains. This was an increase of 9.2%.In other words, less than 15% of Amtrak’spassengers rode long distance trains.Ridership on the Northeast Corridor

was 10,898,000 in 2008 versus 10,035,000in 2007, a gain of 8.6%. Where is the realsuccess story? In Amtrak’s words it is in the“State Supported and Other ShortDistance Corridors.” In 2008, 13,648,000passengers rode these trains versus11,993,000 passengers in 2007, a gain of13.8%. Amtrak’s strategic goals are tofocus on these regional corridors.Recent press coverage of rail passenger

service has been phenomenal, andunprecedented in virtually the last 50years of history. The thought of passengertrains moving at 110 miles per hour hascertainly caught the public’s fancy. (This issad to us who remember the IllinoisCentral south of Champaign, Illinois, con-

Toledo

Cleveland

Port HuronGrand Rapids Pontiac

Detroit

DaytonLafayette

Battle Creek

Columbus

Cincinnati

Louisville

Ft.Wayne

Indianapolis

Carbondale

St. Louis

ChampaignSpringfield

Freeport

Proposed HighSpeed Corridor

Existing RegionalServices

Projected ServiceRoute

Desired futureextensionsof projectedservice routes

Quincy

Omaha

Kansas City

Des MoinesRock Island Princeton

Peoria

Chicago

MilwaukeeMadison

La Crosse

Green Bay

Minneapolis-St. Paul

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Iowa

Missouri

Nebraska

LegendIllinois

Indiana Ohio

Michigan

Watertown

CHICAGO HUB NETWORK

sistently running over 100 mph or theBurlington Zephyrs among other trains.Those before us remember the MilwaukeeRoad between Chicago and Milwaukeeand the sign on the curve at Rondout, slowdown to 90, as well as the Chicago &North Western trains blasting through theNorth Shore suburbs of Chicago.)Certainly Amtrak’s Hiawatha Service

between Chicago and Milwaukee is a suc-cess story. Over the course of fiscal 2008the passenger traffic on this line grew

25.9% from 595,000 passengers to 750,000passengers. From the original three fre-quencies, with trains as short as two cars,seven trips in each direction are offereddaily with trains of five cars in length.Even with this the morning rush hour tripto Chicago and the return “5:00 p.m.train” out of Chicago have standing roomonly with some passengers bringing theirown camp stools on board. (Where are theElectroliners when you need them? – Seethe sidebar on page 4.)

�It is 2:07 p.m. on a very hot July 4, 2008, as Hiawatha Service southbound train number 336 is running about ten minutes late due to heavy pas-senger traffic.The lead coach is wrapped for the television programWheel of Fortune with the legend “National Train Day is coming” above.We arelooking north at Conway Park Road just north of the Lake Forest station.—Norman Carlson photo

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AMTRAK— The Interurban of the 21st Century?

The plans for this service, which is fund-ed by the states of Wisconsin and Illinois,are to ultimately have sixteen daily fre-quencies with the service extended toMadison in the relatively short run andperhaps Green Bay on a longer term basis.Track improvements are underwaybetween Milwaukee and Rondout andfunding for rehabilitation betweenMilwaukee and Watertown, Wisconsin, isin place. Engineering is substantially com-plete from Watertown to Madison.On May 12, 2009, Joseph Boardman,

President of Amtrak, addressed theWestern Railroad Club in Chicago. Joewas nearing the end of a month-longinspection trip of the Amtrak systemnationwide. He believes that the Midwestis a wonderful place for time competitivesurface transportation in regional corri-dors. His experience in the State of NewYork and as the Federal RailroadAdministrator is the basis of his opinion.(See sidebar on page 7 for more of JoeBoardman’s comments)Some commentators believe that three

significant cultural changes need to be

achieved. First is the need to create publicdemand for rail service, in other words willpeople leave their auto at home and ridethe train. Second is to achieve politicalrecognition that public investment in railis in the public’s interest. Third is freightrailroad’s acceptance of passenger rail serv-ice co-existence on their railroads. Thislatter point is complex as the public haslittle understanding of the role of freightrailroads in their daily life. The benefits ofpublic-private partnerships need to be rec-ognized (South Shore Freight and NICTDare a perfect example).Various projectsacross the United States and the CREATEproject in Chicago are other examples ofsuch partnership where the public benefits.The good news is that progress is being

made in these areas of cultural change.However, more public recognition is need-ed so that appropriate allocations amongmodes can be made by government, at alllevels, in transportation infrastructureprojects. What the United States trulyneeds is a comprehensive and coordinatednational transportation policy. That isprobably the toughest thing to achieve

because of the dramatic cultural changesthat are needed at the personal and politi-cal levels. The economy (and the loss ofpersonal wealth), high energy prices andless stressful individual lifestyles may proveto be a very powerful catalyst.Certainly at the Federal level there has

been a sea of change in the view of the roleof rail passenger service. Vice President JoeBiden has been an Amtrak customer virtu-ally since the inception of the company.He was introduced to a worldwide audi-ence by the conductor on his Amtrak trainon the occasion of the pre-inauguralAmtrak special between Philadelphia andWashington, D.C. by the conductor on hisAmtrak train. There is every reason tobelieve that Barack and Michelle Obamaare very familiar with the Chicago TransitAuthority and Metra Electric based onwhere Michelle grew up and where theObamas lived and worked in Chicago. Weknow that their Senior Advisor, ValerieJarrett, is well aware of the CTA. Sheserved as its Chairman.Other people with Illinois roots are in

very critical positions. Senator Dick

Does Electroliner service exist in 2009?

�This very colorful timetable became effective on Sunday, February 9, 1941, when unit 801-802entered service. The timetable is undated as it was prepared to become effective whenever the“Liners” were accepted for revenue service.—Norman Carlson Collection

It was a dank and dismal Saturday morn-ing in February a little over 10 years ago.Much in contrast to the usual practice ofdriving to work, your Managing Editordecided to take a Milwaukee District NorthLine Metra train from Lake Forest toDowntown.The bell for the pedestrian crossing

began ringing. It was a bit early for theMetra train but walking out into the ele-ments seems prudent. It was snowing heav-ily with plenty of fresh snow on theground. Out of the gloaming came a verybright headlight.What the eyes saw was one of the rela-

tively new Genesis locomotives leading aHiawatha Service train from Milwaukee.What the mind saw was the Electroliner! Asthe train rushed by, throwing snow in alldirections, it took me back some 35 yearswatching the Electroliner racing betweenMilwaukee and Chicago. Amtrak’s engi-neer must have thought, “Just what in theworld is that guy doing letting the snow

cover him?” In the words of Yogi Berra, déjàvu all over again!A few minutes later the Metra train

arrived. Seated comfortably in the upperdeck, the mind continued to recall eventsof some 35 or more years prior. Are notNorth Shore’s Skokie Valley locals aliveand well in the form of Metra’s service toLibertyville and Fox Lake? The MilwaukeeRoad’s North Line service was scant at bestuntil the demise of the North Shore Line.It was then, a decade ago, that it first

came to mind that the legacy of service cre-ated by the electric interurbans was stillstruggling along. The recent activitiesregarding passenger rail service have onlyserved to strengthen that conclusion. Thenext time you are standing on a platformwatching your train arrive, maybe youshould think beyond the instant activityand envision what lies ahead.Perhaps the best days of passenger service

in our lives are ahead of us, not behind us.—Norman Carlson

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Durban, the Whip of the Senate, is a verystrong supporter of passenger service. Hewas instrumental in the creation of addi-tional state-funded Amtrak service inIllinois. Secretary of Transportation RayLaHood is from Peoria while AmtrakChairman Tom Carper is from Macomb,Illinois. Joe Szabo, the Federal RailroadAdministrator, is well acquainted withrailroading in Chicago. He is a formerIllinois Central Electric collector and con-ductor who maintained his railroad senior-ity on Metra Electric.On April 16, 2009, President Obama,

along with Vice President Joe Biden andSecretary of Transportation Ray LaHood,called for a new era in high speed passengertrains. Rick Harnish, Executive Director ofthe Midwest High Speed Rail Association,attended the press conference. Rick pro-vided two quotes from the conference. RayLaHood said, “There will be a time whenwe look back on this day as a game chang-er, a time that we got serious about publictransportation for all Americans.”Barack Obama stated, “We are making a

down payment on the economy of the

future. We need to start a transportationsystem equal to the 21st century. Highspeed rail has been happening for decades;the problem is that it is happening in otherplaces. There is no reason that we cannotdo this.” (See more on this press confer-ence in the sidebar on page 8.)The plan calls for $8 billion as a part of

the American Recovery and ReinvestmentAct (ARRA) and a request for $1 billionannually in the Federal budget for highspeed rail services. This is in addition to$1.3 billion that was allocated to Amtrakand over $700 million for transit and com-muter rail projects from ARRA. Ten railcorridors were identified including theChicago Hub Network and California.California may see a truly high speed railsystem built on a new right-of-way dedi-cated to passenger service.Justification for this public investment is

based on high speed rail being a “greensolution” with fuel efficiency and a lowercarbon footprint. It is designed to promoteeconomic expansion, create new choicesfor travelers, reduce the national depend-ence on oil and foster urban and rural com-

munity development. The Chicago Hub isdepicted in the accompanying map.While High Speed Rail is a buzzword in

marketing channels, the most cost effi-cient top speed on a shared (with freight)right-of-way is 110 mph. This results inan average speed that is time competitive,in the opinion of Amtrak, with air servicebetween larger metropolitan areas withina 300-mile radius of trip origination. It isvirtually time competitive with drivingand less costly in an era of high energyprices. Track maintenance requirements,especially for track that handles theheavy freight trains that are typical ofNorth American rail operations, becomeprohibitive.Truly high-speed rail, speeds of 200 mph

or more, require an exclusive right-of-waysuch as is the case in many places inEurope and Japan. California may becomethe first place with truly high-speed rail,building on the legacy of its present inter-city, may we say interurban, and commuteroperations in the Los Angeles Basin andthe greater San Francisco Bay Area.It is interesting to compare the routes of

�On a sunny January 2009 morning southbound train 391 Saluki is leaving Homewood on the Canadian National/Illinois Central around 9:00 a.m.This train along with the Illini is primarily funded by the Illinois State Department of Transportation. These trains operate between Chicago andCarbondale.The City of New Orleans is the third train on the corridor which is not part of the initial high speed train network.—Paul Burgess photo

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AMTRAK— The Interurban of the 21st Century?

Los Angeles’ Metrolink lines and light raillines with the Pacific Electric’s network inthe Los Angeles Basin. Combining theoperations of the Southern Pacific “RedCars” with the Key System andSacramento & Northern interurban in theBay Area with the Bay Area Rapid TransitSystem (BART) is of equal interest. Inmany places the trains of today are literal-ly operating on the interurban rights-of-way of yesteryear. Amtrak operates inthese same corridors as well, and the plansfor the future will expand the number offormer steam railroad and interurban corri-dors that will be recreated, especially inIllinois, Indiana and Ohio.Will Amtrak become the interurban of

the 21st century? If there are, at some

future date, 16 Amtrak trains a day eachway between Chicago and Milwaukee,isn’t that virtually the schedule of aninterurban? In its schedule reprinted onSeptember 14, 1962, four months before itwas abandoned, the Chicago North Shore& Milwaukee scheduled 19 trains dailyeach way.Let us examine at least a portion of the

Chicago-St. Louis corridor. In the summerof 2009 Amtrak provides five daily trains inthe Chicago-Springfield-St Louis corridor.With the inauguration of its Streamliners onNovember 7, 1948, the timetable of thatdate issued by the Illinois TerminalRailroad scheduled seven daily trains eachway between Springfield and St. Louis, sixfrom Peoria and one from Decatur.

With stamina, and a lot of time, youcould travel by interurban over the lines offive different companies, between Chicagoand Louisville via South Bend andIndianapolis. But, all of this is simply a funexercise for those of us who are familiarwith interurban electric railway history.Let’s cut to the chase.An interurban is a railway that connects

urban pairs with fast, frequent service. Isthis not exactly what is proposed, especial-ly in the Chicago Hub Network? Are wenot recreating an enhanced interurbanrailway system that essentially disappearedmore than 70 years ago? Two adages cometo mind; history tends to repeat itself andthe more things change the more they staythe same. Let us know what you think.

�Looking north from UD tower at Joliet Union Station, Lincoln service train 303 is coming to a stop on June 25, 2007.The train is operating on theformer Gulf Mobile & Ohio. Union Pacific’s ownership begins north of this location at Jackson Street. Note the absence of a platform requiring pre-cision stops by the engineer at the boards that are laid at 85 foot intervals.—Mark Llanuza photos

Autumn 2009 First&Fastest | 7

On May 11, 2009, Joeaddressed the Illinois HouseRailroad Committee inChicago. “The competitiveadvantage is with the train”for regional services, Joetold the committee. Heexplained that the cost of a200 mph network would beprohibitive. Priority shouldbe given to replacing anti-quated signaling andswitching that limits sometrains to five mph. “The keyto going fast is not to goslow,” said Amtrak Chair-

man Tom Carper. This is a very clever way of addressing thetime to navigate terminal trackage.While 110 mph speeds can be achieved between south of

Joliet and north of Alton on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor,reducing the conflicts with railroad crossings and, especially, allthe operating challenges between Alton and St. Louis couldhave a profound effect on travel time and service consistency.Others are concerned with interfacing freight and higher speedpassenger trains. We know that this was done daily decades ago;however, the appreciation of history is lacking, and the lack ofhistorical knowledge extends far beyond railroading.Boardman dismisses this concern and notes that like yester-

year Amtrak is doing this today on a daily basis. “Heck, no, andanybody who says so ought to come to the Northeast Corridorand take a look,” he said. “We run 125 mph right next to freightrailroads today.” Three days before his testimony before thecommittee, Boardman and Pat Quinn, Governor of Illinois,signed a memorandum of agreement committing the UnionPacific Railroad and the Illinois Department of Transportationto develop a Chicago to St. Louis rail infrastructure and a safe-ty plan to outline how passenger trains will operate safely at 110mph while co-existing with UP freight trains.The investment in the Keystone corridor, Harrisburg to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has shown the dynamic of trip timeversus truly high speed service. Ridership grew substantiallywith what is really a relatively small increase in the top speed ofthe service. The consistency of the speed is the issue, so superelevation in curves, getting in and out of terminals and schedul-ing to minimize freight train interference is perhaps more impor-tant than top speed. Again, the point of portal-to-portal triptime in comparison to air and auto cannot be overemphasized.Rail in many ways is more hassle-free than the other modes, par-ticularly as urban congestion grows.Joe also cited the Northeast Corridor where in 1967 the

Pennsylvania Railroad started experiments that resulted in the

Metroliner service. In 1976 the 100 mph speed limit wasachieved after significant Federal investment. By 1980 the 125mph threshold was achieved. With the Acela, 135 mph isachieved in a few places with limited opportunities for 150 mphin other areas. This is achieved on trackage that is shared withfreight trains. Ownership of the market share has switched fromthe airlines having 63% market share in 2000 to Amtrak having63% market share in 2009. Some of this is the effect ofSeptember 11, 2001; however, the larger impact is the Acelaand improved service consistency.At the Western Railway Club meeting on May 12, 2009, Joe

opened his remarks with the comment that the Midwest has theperfect situation for trip-time competitive rail passenger serviceto provide effective competition for regional auto and airlinetravel. He noted the significance of the Brighton Park project,eliminating a 19th century stop board environment with a 40mph passenger crossing as the prime example of what needs tobe done to reduce time in terminals. Joe cited the “Englewoodflyover” as perhaps the next major project to decrease transittime within the Chicago terminal area.What the public is seeking, in Amtrak’s opinion, is speed, fre-

quency, convenience and comfort in their travel. A top speed of110 mph approaches twice the highway top speed, especially inthe Northeastern part of the United States. The further westone goes the higher nominal speed in the urban areas is mitigat-ed by congestion. From a railroad perspective, exceeding 110mph, which requires FRA Class 6 track quality, is cost prohibi-tive.The bottom line is one must justify the expenditure of tax-payer money.Another public policy question is who believes that we will

maintain $2.50 per gallon gas? Ridership increases are direct-ly related to gas prices. Regardless of gas prices, the publicbenefits from an enhanced rail passenger system. The publichas another choice for their mode of travel, a mode that isenvironmentally friendly. The corridors from Chicago toDetroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis are prime candidates fordevelopment as rail passenger services exists today, haveproven success stories and represent cooperation with statedepartments of transportation.Of interest to those of us with knowledge of electric railway

transportation, Joe believes in electrification. He has a desire tosee electrification beyond the Northeast Corridor. JimMcClelland, a railroader with a long resume of public and pri-vate service in the railroad industry, and Matt Rose, the CEO ofBNSF, agree that there is a future role for electrification in therailroad industry. (BNSF is considering electrification as a solu-tion for carbon footprint issues in the Los Angeles Basin and apotential benefit for the electric utility industry.) Joe certainlybrings some interesting perspectives to Amtrak and it will bemost interesting to see what develops under his leadership.—Norman Carlson

Joseph Boardman’s comments in Illinois in May 2009

Joe Boardman—Amtrak photo

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AMTRAK— The Interurban of the 21st Century?

Vice President Joe Biden opened his remarks by saying, “I’mmore happy than you can imagine,” which invoked laughterfrom the assembled press and guests. He has exceeded 7,900commuter trips on Amtrak and recalled that one day, shortlybefore his death, his father commented, “That is the definitionof a misspent adulthood, sitting on a train.” This invoked evenmore laughter from the assembled group.Biden said that he was really proud to be part of an adminis-

tration that has a “real vision about how to not only transformthis country generally, but transform our transportation systemin a fundamental way. It is about time we took these railwaysand made them the national treasures they should be.” He alsorecognized the contribution that Rahm Emanuel, White HouseChief of Staff and former Congressman from the near northwestside of Chicago, made in convincing members of Congress toinclude this funding in the Recovery Act.President Obama’s remarks included the following. “What

we’re talking about is a vision for high speed rail in America.Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city. No racing to anairport and across the terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tar-mac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. Imagine whiskingthrough towns at speeds over 100 miles per hour, walking on afew steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocksfrom your destination. Imagine what a great project that wouldbe to rebuild America.”The President also referred to the $80 billon a year of lost pro-

ductivity and wasted fuel from highway congestion and airportschocked with increased traffic. “We’re at the mercy of fluctuat-ing gas prices all too often; we pump too many greenhouse gasesinto the air.” He noted the positive impacts on society in France,Spain, China and Japan from their high speed rail networks.On June 17, 2009, the Federal Railroad Administration dis-

closed the process for awarding grants and the timelines of theprocess. The ten identified corridors in the United States will beeligible. Projects will be rated on transportation benefits, job-creation power, and public benefits. Grants requests will beplaced into four categories.1) “Shovel-ready” projects which are the primary beneficiaries

of the $8 billion in funding2) Projects requiring engineering and study3) Future projects that FRA deems meritorious4) Projects where States will provide a 50% matchApplications for items 1, 3 and 4 are due on August 24,

2009, with interim checkpoints, and applications for item 2are due October 2, 2009. Approval is expected to follow short-ly thereafter.Matt Rose, CEO of BNSF Railway, has encouraged Congress

to focus the money on a few projects to demonstrate significantprogress. California appears to be favored for the truly highspeed rail system independent of the existing national rail sys-tem. Existing services with proven revenue potential and multi-state cooperation will be favored for corridors that will beincreased to 110 mph operation.On June 3, 2009, the governors of Georgia, Illinois,

Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia andWisconsin met with Joe Biden and Ray LaHood to share theirideas and interests in the application process for allocating the$8 billion in funds. Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois andGovernor Jay Nixon of Missouri along with Senator DickDurbin of Illinois are presenting the case that the Chicago-St.Louis corridor should be given preference as they believe it is anexcellent match with the criteria for funding.In a future issue of First & Fastest we will look in more detail

at the corridors that constitute the Chicago Hub Network.

AVision for High Speed Rail in America

�This is train 851, theHoosier State which oper-ates between Indianapolisand Chicago on Sunday,Tuesday, Wednesday andFriday. On the remainingdays of the week theCardinal, which originatedin NewYork City, operateson this schedule. TheChicago- Ind ianapol i s -Louisville corridor isscheduled to become apart of the high speed net-work. The unusual consistis due in part that thistrain ferries equipmentbetween the maintenancebase in Chicago andAmtrak’s major shop facil-ity in the Indianapolis sub-urb of Beech Grove.—PaulBurgess photo