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MWRF post fest thoughts


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 23 July 2015 - 12:51 AM

Fest by the Numbers:

 

Of the 15 people participating, here is where they break down by state:

 

  • Florida and Indiana tied for the lead in each sending 3 participants.
  • New Jersey and Illinois tied for second place with 2 participants each.
  • Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, New York each had one participant.

 

Of the 15 people attending our Fest, 4 female and 11 male.

 

During the entire 7 days, four people participated wire to wire -- that is from riding the Pennsylvanian until the Glenview points run.  Of those 4, two didn't ride everything in between.  So that wire to wire distinction is debatable.

 

Breakdown by activity:

 

7/15/15: Pennsylvanian:  7 people from our group were on the train -- 2 of whom started in New York City while the rest started in Philadelphia.

7/16/15: All Pittsburgh activities and riding the Capitol Limited:  7 people.

7/17/15: The westbound Empire Builder trip had 12 participants aboard -- 7 who came from Pittsburgh were joined by 5 more in Chicago.

7/18/15: Minneapolis activities:  Between the start in St. Paul and Mall of America there were 10 of us.  We picked up one more at Mall of America making us 11 the rest of the day through the Northstar trip.  After that, one travelled directly back to St. Paul, and 10 went to dinner at one of two places, 5 in each.  The two groups of 5 then travelled by Green Line back to St. Paul one trip about 10 minutes behind the other.

7/19/15: Of the 12 people who boarded the eastbound Empire Builder, 11 were the same as the group that rode it westbound, thus one new person replaced the one we had lost. We also picked up one more riding coach from Seattle, so we had 13 group members on board.  One then detrained in Milwaukee, leaving 12 to continue into Chicago.

7/20/15: The morning round trip to Antioch and O'Hare Airport had 8 people who left Union Station, joined by a ninth en route.  At the lunch stop at Millennium station we gained one who joined us only for lunch and left, lost two, and gained two more.  So for the Blue Island turn we had 9 people together, 7 of which had been on the morning Antioch/O'Hare trip.  In the evening, 5 people did an evening points run to Mendota.

7/21/15: By now not many folks remained from the larger group had earlier in our week.  5 people were still present in town to do the final activity, the Glenview lunch round trip.  Of those 5, four had done the Mendota trip the previous evening.

 

So by this synopsis, the peak we had together riding trains was 13 from St. Paul to Milwaukee.  The smallest together  were the two groups of 5 who went to dinner in Minneapolis, and did the Mendota and Glenview points trips.

 

More numbers will follow.  But on an equally serious note, I do appreciate everyone who made the trip another success. We had an educational time learning about the routes, complicated fare systems and media, and got to experience the entire light rail system in both Pittsburgh and Minneapolis/St. Paul as well as the Northstar in Minneapolis.  It was a fun week that of course brought its worries with late trains.  Aside from the one hour late Capitol Limited leaving Pittsburgh and the 4-hour late eastbound Empire Builder, we really had no worries about making connections.  Our commuter rail rides in Minneapolis and Chicago went without hitches. The worries about tight connections were a moot point.  We played with fire with the 10-minute connection on Monday evening at Blue Island, when the first train was 6 minutes late.  Hats off to all who hustled across the street and across the tracks just before the gates and bells began for our second train that would have blocked access to itself once it came across the grade crossing.  I am still gloating about us making that one !! That helped us to both end the Fest activities for some members on a high note, and also helped those doing the Mendota trip to ensure they would make their train.

 

So again thanks for everyone for coming out to ride the rails over the week in July.  I realize that everyone went through some type of personal expense to buy travel, whether it was Amtrak or flying to or from other locations to get someplace quicker.  And we stayed in good hotels that cost us money or loyalty points.  That you chose this trip to use them is appreciated.

 

A few asked me what's next, and honestly I put everything I had into this one, so little thought has gone into what we might do in January or next summer.  As some of you know I have a fantasy list of places we might visit, however each comes with caveats that certain elements not yet complete be done before we go visit the city. 

 

For a summer trip, the name Dallas keeps on surfacing since there is so much new to ride that didn't exist on our last visit in 2005.  However, there are still a couple of projects in the works that I would like to also see completed before we venture down there. The modern Dallas Streetcar, has its first phase open, and the second phase is supposed to go into service in early 2016.   There is also a Blue Line extension under construction to University of Northern Texas (UNT) set to open in 2016. If both of these happen by the Spring, we can do more to plan Dallas in 2016.  However if they won't be in service until after our conventional trip period in mid-July, then we must put that off to 2017.   The dilemma then becomes what we would do in 2016?

 

There is plenty new to ride on the West Coast, especially with Expo Line Phase 2 and the Gold Line Foothill extension to Azusa both opening later this year.  A Coast Starlight trip might be possible too. The Bay Area may not have much new yet but with e-BART, SMART, and a BART extension to Berryessa and eventually through San Jose and Mountain View. that needs to wait a few more years.  And up in Portland, the Orange Line and the completed new streetcar loop will both be open this September.  Seattle will soon have the First Hill Streetcar and some LINK light rail extensions.

 

For January, not much new to do other than the extension of the 7 train in Manhattan (now set to open in September 2015). Perhaps we could do that, as well as a mix and match from NJ TRANSIT, Metro North, and Long Island RR.

 

 

 



Kevin Korell


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#2 jis

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Posted 23 July 2015 - 08:40 AM

Thanks for the usual superb job in organizing the Fest! Primarily the Fest needs to be a bunch of fun train rides and food, and it fit the bill well! Thanks again.



#3 pennyk

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Posted 23 July 2015 - 02:52 PM

As always, I had a wonderful time at the fest.  I agree with Jis in his statement above, that a superb job was done in organizing the fest.  Although I may have "rocked the boat" a bit regarding the group dinner, I appreciate the fact that both Kevin and Steve exhibited patience with me.  Thanks again.



#4 KevinKorell

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Posted 23 July 2015 - 03:12 PM

All, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to report any Amtrak mileage for travel to, during, or from the Fest in the current open mileage thread.   Mine will wait until I get home over the weekend.



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#5 jebr

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Posted 23 July 2015 - 08:37 PM

Kudos and thanks for creating and executing an enjoyable fest (my first!) I hope to be able to attend another one soon.





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