The Twin Cities–Milwaukee–Chicago (TCMC) project is a planned Amtrak intercity rail train that will operate in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota between Chicago and St. Paul. It will be an extension of an existing Hiawatha Service train. This train will follow the routing of the Empire Builder for the entirety of its route and the Hiawatha Service from Chicago to Milwaukee.

TCMC

A Hiawatha Service train, one of which will be extended to St. Paul for the TCMC project
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Planned
Locale	Midwestern United States
First service	2024
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Route
Termini	Chicago, Illinois St. Paul, Minnesota
Average journey time	7:11 westbound, 7:27 eastbound
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	333, 340
Technical
Rolling stock	Siemens Charger locomotive, Siemens Venture coaches
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Operating speed	79 miles per hour (127 km/h) (top)
Track owner(s)	Canadian Pacific (St. Paul–Rondout) Metra (Rondout–Chicago)
Route map Legend Empire Builder 410 mi 660 km Saint Paul Mississippi River 371 mi 597 km Red Wing 308 mi 496 km Winona Mississippi River MN WI 281 mi 452 km La Crosse Tunnel City 240 mi 386 km Tomah Wisconsin River 195 mi 314 km Wisconsin Dells 178 mi 286 km Portage 150 mi 241 km Columbus 85 mi 137 km Milwaukee 78 mi 126 km Milwaukee Airport 63 mi 101 km Sturtevant WI IL MD-N to Fox Lake 17 mi 27 km Glenview 0 mi Chicago 2345 mi 3774 km other Amtrak services 2222 mi 3576 km California Zephyr, Illinois Zephyr, and Southwest Chief Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle City of New Orleans, Illini and Saluki Capitol Limited, Lake Shore Limited, and Michigan Services Cardinal and Hoosier State This diagram: view talk edit

Background

Originally, the TCMC Corridor was operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Milwaukee Road ran numerous passenger trains from Chicago to St. Paul and beyond including the famous Twin Cities Hiawatha and Olympian Hiawatha. When Amtrak took over intercity passenger trains in 1971, only the Empire Builder continued serving the corridor. For a time, the North Coast Hiawatha and the North Star served this route as well.

As of December 2021^[update], the Empire Builder continues to run daily, while the Hiawatha service runs seven additional round trips per day between Chicago and Milwaukee.[1]

The TCMC project began in 2015 after the conclusion of a feasibility report by Amtrak.[2] Based on the favorable ridership and revenue projections MnDOT led a Phase 1 study in cooperation with WisDOT, IDOT, the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority and the FRA to analyze service alternatives, infrastructure upgrades and anticipated costs. The Phase 2 study was led by WisDOT to complete the environmental review and prepare a Service Development Plan.[3]

Infrastructure upgrades for the project are required in La Crosse, La Crescent, Winona and St. Paul. The total capital cost is $53.3 million, which has been fully funded by federal grants, WisDOT and MnDOT.[4][5] The project is currently scheduled to begin construction in 2023 and begin operations in 2024.[6] The TCMC service is anticipated to be the first phase of additional Amtrak service across Wisconsin and Minnesota with eventual extensions to Madison, WI, Eau Claire, WI and Duluth, MN.

Operation

The TCMC train will make 13 total stops from Chicago to St. Paul. Westbound, the journey will take 7 hours and 11 minutes, while it will take 7 hours 27 minutes eastbound. Each direction, the train will have a 5 minute long stop in Milwaukee.[7]

The train will be not be a completely new service, but will rather extend an existing Hiawatha Service train from Milwaukee to St. Paul and back. The trains that will be extended are numbers 333 and 340, with train 333 departing Chicago at 11:05am and train 340 arriving in Chicago at 7:14pm.[7] An eventual re-route through Madison is in the long term plans for the TCMC route. This change in routing would likely follow the Wisconsin & Southern Watertown Subdivision and Canadian Pacific's M&P Subdivision bypassing the Columbus station which is currently considered the Madison stop along the route.

Ridership is projected to be 124,000 passengers per year in 2024.[4]

It is unknown what the name of the train will be, so far it has only been known as the TCMC Project.

Route and stops

References