Amtrak’s Borealis debut: A few observations

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After 10 years of study, Amtrak’s new Borealis train between St. Paul and Chicago took its inaugural run May 21, to modest fanfare and media coverage. More train service is good, if done properly. It’s too soon to assess the new train, but not too early for a few observations.

With Borealis, we again have two trains a day each way on the Twin Cities-La Crosse-Milwaukee-Chicago route; the other is Amtrak’s Empire Builder, which makes a much longer trip to the Pacific Northwest. But Empire Builder timekeeping is inconsistent for the eastbound train due to chronic track work and conflicts with freight service in the 1,800 miles between the West Coast and Minnesota. This was the incentive for a second train.

Borealis is funded by Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois and operates under contract by Amtrak. Borealis is actually the extension to Minnesota of a pre-existing train between Chicago and Milwaukee. It leaves St. Paul at 11:50 a.m. eastbound, three hours after the Empire Builder, and arrives in Chicago 7½ hours later, at 7:15 p.m., too late for dinner in Chicago or to catch another train to the east. Westbound, the train leaves Chicago at 11:05 a.m., arriving at St. Paul at 6:30 p.m.

Borealis’ schedule, on paper, is a bit shorter than the Empire Builder, achieved by taking padding out of the Empire Builder’s schedule (padding enables that train to make up small delays). If Borealis falls behind en route, it can’t catch up, and indeed in its first few months of service Borealis’ on-time record has been inconsistent. Given the occasional delays experienced by the Empire Builder, it also means that on some days the two trains have run nose to tail eastbound, clearly not a good use of the new service.

The Empire Builder uses Amtrak’s best transcontinental equipment, including full lounge, dining and sleeping cars plus long-distance coaches, which serves it well on the surprisingly scenic journey down the upper Mississippi River valley and across Wisconsin.

Borealis uses older short-distance corridor cars with smaller windows and only a café counter food service. Newer, better equipment exists, but unlike Wisconsin, Minnesota didn’t help pay for it, so doesn’t get to use it. Borealis is a five car train — four coaches and a combination business class and snack bar car.

To avoid having to turn the trains after each trip, Amtrak put one engine at each end. Two 4,200-horsepower engines is one too many for such a short train, adding unnecessary cost to the service. We wonder if the sponsoring states understand what they are paying for.

So how is the new service doing? Initial usage has been robust, but Amtrak has not released ridership figures that separate usage on the Milwaukee-Saint Paul segment of the trip from base usage in the existing Milwaukee-Chicago corridor. We will soon learn how much of the patronage to date is seasonal or has been driven by the train’s novelty. What is clear is that the Empire Builder continues to be heavily patronized, so Borealis does not appear to be poaching customers from the other train.

It’s also clear that a lot more could be done with the service. For example, it should also serve Minneapolis, but it terminates 10 miles short in St. Paul. Also, clustering the two trains three to four hours apart results in poor usage of equipment and forfeits some potential ridership. Greater time separation — e.g., an early afternoon departure from St. Paul — would be an improvement.

Borealis trains spend twice as much time each day parked as they do in revenue service, an amazing waste of capital equipment. Surely the trains could be sent beyond St. Paul, to Duluth or Fargo, before turning back.

It’s regrettable that the states did not put the design and service out to bid by private (i.e., non-Amtrak) providers, who might have offered better ideas and services for less than Amtrak’s monopoly-minded pricing.

We wish Borealis well. But, Borealis deserves better thought and planning than it’s received so far, unnecessarily capping its chances of success.

Andrew Selden is president of the Minnesota Association of Railroad Passengers.