On Track OnLine (OTOL) Midwest RailFest 2015: Pittsburgh, Minneapolis/St. Paul, & Chicago, July 15-21, 2015
Our Summer event for this year is ready to be announced. The OTOL Midwest RailFest 2015 (MWRF) will feature trips on Amtrak's Pennsylvanian, Capitol Limited, and Empire Builder, and visits to Pittsburgh and the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
This 7-day journey will start on the East Coast as we board the Pennsylvanian in either New York or Philadelphia (or anywhere else you may feel convenient). The day-long journey ends that same evening in Pittsburgh.
We have wanted for years to visit Pittsburgh. They have a light rail system operated by Port Authority of Allegheny County that runs primarily within and well south of the city's downtown core, but was also recently extended under the Allegheny River to serve the North Side district by the sports stadiums. Unfortunately, former lines to Drake and "over the hill" via Allentown no longer operate.
The city also has two operating funiculars (Inclines) which will provide us with both fun and scenic views. Pittsburgh has been avoided until now both because it lacked a Day Pass fare instrument and because the resulting cash fare payments with zone and light rail surcharges would have meant carrying around a lot of exact change. While there is still no Day Pass, they now have a smart card we can just load it up for our needs as we recently did in Washington, DC.
Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin Cities, are now tied together with the second of two light rail lines operated by Metro Transit. The older line runs between downtown Minneapolis and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport as well as the nation's largest shopping mall, the Mall of America. Metro Transit also runs a commuter rail line known as Northstar, which travels between Target Field Station and the town of Big Lake.
The Twin Cities will of course be accessed by a round trip between Chicago and St. Paul on the Empire Builder. Given the train's recent issues with severe delays, this will be an underlying concern during our trip. A westbound late evening arrival time into St. Paul should work, but we only have one full day the next day to accomplish all of our planned activities. The eastbound train supposedly leaves around 8 AM, and should get into Chicago in the afternoon. No activities are planned for Chicago other than getting to our hotels due to the possibility of a late arrival.
Once we come back from that phase of the Fest, we enter its third phase, which will cover a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago that we have not yet ridden as a group since our first visit in 2003, and we will also do a Metra run to Blue Island that will feature outbound and inbound trips over different routes. We also will ride the people mover at O'Hare Airport, and take a "points run" journey up to Glenview and back on Amtrak.
Again, this event will span a total of 7 days, Wednesday through Tuesday. You will need to allot more time to get to Philadelphia or New York by the respective departure time of Train #43, the Pennsylvanian, on Wednesday, July 15th. Those coming from other locations not wishing to do the Pittsburgh phase can meet us in Chicago in time for the Friday, July 17th westbound departure of Train #7/27, the Empire Builder.
The last activity in Chicago on Tuesday morning, July 21st, is the only planned activity of the day. Those needing to travel east who wish to do the Chicago activities with the group can plan on taking eastbound Amtrak trains on Tuesday evening, including the Lake Shore Limited, Capitol Limited, and the Cardinal, which operates that day.
This event has three segments, through which participants can elect to attend all activities. Your finances and time constraints may only allow you to participate fewer days. This is permissible if you wish to join us later or leave us sooner. I believe this event is well structured so that one can do only the Pennsylvanian trip and Pittsburgh, only the Twin Cities round trip, or just spend the couple of days in Chicago.
The travel details you need to know for this trip:
Hotels
- Pittsburgh: Arriving Tuesday, July 15th evening, departing Wednesday, July 16th (1 night). Note that we don't leave Pittsburgh until late Wednesday night, so you may wish to make arrangements at check-out to have your luggage held until that evening.
- Twin Cities: Because of the scheduled Empire Builder late night arrival and early morning departure, it is strongly suggested that you choose hotels in downtown St. Paul. There are many hotels throughout the metropolitan area in Minneapolis and Bloomington, but they will require long travels at unpleasant hours, possibly by taxi or car service if the light rail is not running. Arriving Friday evening, July 17th, and departing Sunday morning, July 19th (2 nights).
- Chicago: Arriving Sunday evening, July 19th, and departing Tuesday morning, July 21st.
- Plus any others as you travel on your own to the start of the Fest in New York or Philadelphia, and home from the end of the Fest in Chicago a week later.
Amtrak
- Leave New York mid-morning or Philadelphia early afternoon of Wednesday, July 15th, arriving in Pittsburgh the same night on westbound Train #43, Pennsylvanian.
- Leave Pittsburgh late night of Thursday, July 16th, arriving in Chicago morning of Friday, July 17th on westbound Train #29, Capitol Limited.
- Leave Chicago afternoon of Friday, July 17th, arriving St. Paul the same evening on westbound Train #7/27, Empire Builder.
- Leave St. Paul morning of Sunday, July 19th, arriving Chicago same day on eastbound Train #8/28, Empire Builder.
- Plus any other trips you need to take to get to New York or Philadelphia before the departure of Train #43 on July 15th, and after last Chicago activity on July 21st.
The homepage with further description of each day's activities can be found here. On it you will find links to our itinerary, lists of rail transit and commuter rail lines in our host cities, scanner frequencies, lists of restaurants and hotels near transit stations, and other helpful links for visitors to each city.
The tentative itinerary, which as always remains tentative until such time as we execute the plan, is here. As we found out in Salt Lake City last year, plans can change due to circumstances beyond our control, so things may require some last minute tweaking. Where we ultimately decide to have lunch and dinner in the cities we visit may also determine what lines we ride and where we board and detrain.
As always, the event will have both a basic Participant List and closer to the time a confidential contact list that has everyone's hotel plans. I am asking for your help in making this Fest as much of a success as the previous ones have been. Thus I ask you to please follow these directions to make things easier for me to keep track of everyone's plans.
At this time please send me ONLY your intentions to participate, your hometown (if not already known), and which days you will attend -- either all or the specific days. Please do NOT at this time send your hotel choices or Amtrak room assignments if already have them. Please put MWRF Attendance in the subject line.
At a LATER TIME we can discuss the contact listing as well as your hotel choices and Amtrak reservations. I will ask at that time that you label your e-mail subject line appropriately with Amtrak or contact information for our sleeper room chart and the confidential contact list.
I have posted this announcement on the OTOL board as well as a one-time e-mail to those who have participated before or expressed interest. Because it is impossible to play to the two different audiences, all further updates (with the exception of e-mailing the contact list) will be made on the OTOL board in this forum. It is imperative for you to keep up with possible itinerary changes and any updates that might be pertinent to everyone.
If you have any questions about our plans please e-mail me instead of other participants. I can answer your question quicker than if it is relayed through another person. If you wish to help out in the planning, such as finding appropriate restaurants for decent sit-down meals in the three cities, please contact me. There are no committees and no registrations required to attend -- all I ask is that you let me know your intentions and not leave all of the advance planning to me. Anyone who wishes to help out is welcome to do so!
Finally, I know that all of us are getting older, and that mobility is not as easy for many of us as it once was. I try to plan these trips to give us a reasonable dwell at the transfer points so that we are sure to make the next train. However sometimes the transit schedules don't allow for this. For example if there is a choice between waiting 10 minutes and waiting 40 minutes, I will choose the 10 minute wait because the idea is to keep moving to insure our total coverage of the rail lines we came to see. As we found out in Baltimore this past January, some made it and some didn't. There also may be long walks that I don't know about having not been much to Pittsburgh and never having been to Minneapolis or St. Paul. I have no idea whether the blocks are long or short, nor what the terrain might be. If you feel that you are unable to walk uphill or a few long blocks in temperatures that may be above 90 degrees, then you may want to consider alternate plans. While best efforts are made to accommodate everyone in the group, due to what may turn out to be somewhat tight schedules, an itinerary change may not be possible at the last minute.
Looking forward to another successful summer event!