Milwaukee Chicago ICPR Corridor: Hiawatha Service …...Arun Rao, Passenger Rail Manager Wisconsin...

CORT, Miami, FL, September 12th, 2018

Milwaukee – Chicago ICPR Corridor: Hiawatha Service

Expansion

Council on Rail Transportation

Arun Rao, Passenger Rail Manager Wisconsin Department of Transportation


Milwaukee-Chicago Amtrak Hiawatha Service

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• Operating support jointly financed by Wisconsin (75%) and Illinois (25%)

• 7 Round-trips daily: Milwaukee Intermodal- Milwaukee Airport – Sturtevant, WI – Glenview, IL - Chicago Union Station

• 89 minute scheduled travel time• Operates on CP Rail in Wisconsin and Metra in Illinois


Milwaukee-Chicago Amtrak Hiawatha Service

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• 830,000 riders SFY18; continuing upward trend in ridership

• Ridership and revenue have more than doubled since the service increased to 7 round-trips in 2003

• In state fiscal year 2018, nearly 75% of total costs were covered by ticket revenues.

• 94% on –time performance

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Amtrak Hiawatha Service State Fiscal Year Ridership


Ridership profile and benefits to business community

• Overall 58% non work related trips, 42% business or commuting.

• 23% daily commuters on weekdays• 19% less than daily commuting weekdays• 25% on weekdays going to/from business trip/meeting• 67% total business or commuter travel on weekdays: • 34% tickets on weekdays paid for by employers

• 10% transferring to other Amtrak trains

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• Regular riders from companies with facilities or subsidiaries/clients in Milwaukee and Chicago, including, for example:

• SC Johnson, Case, Miller, Coors, Johnson Controls, Northwestern Mutual, US Bank, Rockwell Automation, Manpower, and many more.

• Business community calling for more frequencies


Growing demand for rail service on the corridor

• Demand and need for increased frequencies has been identified for years and growing fast

• Standing room only conditions regularly on peak trains – In peak season such as summer, this averages 19 trains per month, mostly on weekdays, and increasing.

• Challenges to adding cars to the consists• Surges on peak trains, excess capacity off-peak• Nearing the tipping point of having to permanently

add more cars to meet current demand• Economic developments such as Foxconn have

accentuated the need and pushed to a high priority

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State initiatives to improve the service and address challenges

• Midwest state-owned equipment pool of locomotives and cars

• 33 Siemens Charger locomotives and 88 Siemens Single-level cars

• Hiawatha allocated 2 locomotives and 6 coach cars but more needed to fully equip the existing service

• CRISI grant for additional equipment (6 coaches and 3 cab-coaches) to fully equip the Hiawatha

• Cab-coach cars as part of the solution to corridor equipment needs – more seating

• States initiatives to improve and promote a regional system with network connectivity in the Midwest

• Recent schedule changes

• Website

• CMAQ funded 3rd party marketing contractor

• Increasing frequencies

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• Corridor has 65 Metra commuter rail trains, 25 freight trains , and 16 Amtrak trains daily (proposed increase to 22 Amtrak)

• Environmental Assessment (EA) and Service Development Plan (SDP) for the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha Service corridor to:• add 3 additional daily round-trip

frequencies, for a total of 10 round-trips daily

• reduce travel time and improve reliability

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WisDOT

IDOT

FRA

In partnership with Amtrak

Milwaukee-Chicago Corridor: Increasing to 10 Round-trips daily


• Over $195 million (2018 dollars) in railroad infrastructure improvements needed

• Significant ridership growth forecasted with 10 round-trip schedule

• 10 round-trip schedule addresses crucial needs/ transportation issues in the multimodal corridor

• Adds AM peak departure from Milwaukee

• Adds PM peak departure from Chicago

• Adds night departures from both cities

• Addresses overcrowding on peak trains.

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Milwaukee-Chicago 10 round-trips EA and SDP: Results


Milwaukee-Chicago 10 Round-trips EA and SDP: Projects

Railroad infrastructure projects (7 in Illinois, 3 in Wisconsin) needed to accommodate additional trains and maintain reliability

Projects identified by Rail Traffic Controller Simulations and workshops with the host railroads (Metra and CP Rail), Amtrak, FRA, and the states.

Total Railroad Infrastructure cost for 9 projects in IL and WI: $195 million

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Milwaukee-Chicago 10 Round-trips EA and SDP: Status

• Draft Completed; Released October 6th, 2016 • Strong support from the business community in

southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois• Support from Wisconsin stakeholders and public• Strong opposition from residents and groups in

Chicago north-shore suburban communities of Glenview and Lake Forest, IL to track projects and current freight noise and vibration.

• Timeline of final EA extended into this fall to accomodate additional outreach needs in Illinois

• WisDOT will submit all components of the EA to FRA by late fall

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• Work completed January 2017 – present to address comments• Additional environmental analysis

• Operations modeling

• Refinements to projects

• Analysis of alternative design options

• Additional public outreach

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Milwaukee-Chicago 10 Round-trips EA and SDP: Status


WisDOT Federal Grant Applications: Moving forward with 10 round-trips

• CRISI 2017• Milwaukee Airport 2nd Platform: $10 million, $5 million

federal share• 3 Cab-coach cars: $15 million, $7.5 million federal share

• BUILD• Milwaukee Airport 2nd Platform plus CTC signaling

upgrade near Milwaukee Intermodal: $15.4 million, $9.3 million federal share

• CRISI 2018 • Milwaukee Airport 2nd Platform plus CTC signaling

upgrade near Milwaukee Intermodal : $15.4 million, $7.7 million federal share

• 6 Coach and 3 Cab-coach cars: $39 million, $25.6 million federal share

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Milwaukee Chicago ICPR Corridor: Hiawatha Service …...Arun Rao, Passenger Rail Manager Wisconsin...

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