Greetings from Highland Park, Illinois just north of Chicago where I arrived on the Empire Builder this afternoon into Glenview (the Amtrak stop for suburban Chicago) only two hours late.
My time in St Paul and Minneapolis (split my nights between the two cities) was spent seeing three college friends that I got busy with. The lateness of the Empire Builder made me lose the eight hours I was planning to spend getting more content for the Hiawatha Line and riding the Northstar Commuter Rail. I did though have to experience the construction of a Light Rail Line, the Central Corridor that will connect Minneapolis and St Paul opening in 2014, along University Avenue, including right outside the current Midway Amtrak Station. My friends there are quite excited about the new light rail line and two of them claimed they will start taking public transit more when its built. My one transit ride though on this visit was as soon as I arrive. I took the University Avenue Bus to the University of Minnesota that took a lot longer than it should have because of all the street detours due to light rail construction. The U of M has also been split in two from all of the construction going on in the middle of campus.
Now onto my adventures today on most of the rest of the Empire Builder route. I got dropped off at the Amtrak station earlier than I wanted (I already knew the train was arriving at 9:00am) by one of my friend’s (who is living at his childhood home) mother who was worried I would miss the train since we did not arrive at the station until 7:30 after missing the first turn into the station since many of the direction signs have been removed because of the light rail construction. I would have been fine with only 20 minutes even if the train had been on time.
The St. Paul (Minneapolis) Midway Amtrak Station is probably the most remote train station from downtown that I have been to in a big city (small city stations like Syracuse, Albany-Rennselear, New York and Olympia-Lacy are all in the suburbas) and is called Midway Station because it is located directly between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis in the Twin Cities. It is located in an industrial area with no place to really walk so even with seeing the handwritten train departure has been delayed 9:00am signs on the doors into the station, I did not go for my typical my train is late walk and just decided to stay at the station. The stop looks straight out of the 1970s and I went up to the upper level waiting area (that was empty, downstairs full) with slightly more comfortable chairs and bright red carpet. The station has received modern signage including at the entrances to its parking lot (the building is even set back from the street) but the pointless arrow has been allowed to remain on the walls of the building.
Sitting upstairs in that empty seating area, the wait was one of my most productive for a train in a long time sorting photos and reading once my computer died (could not find a free outlet).
The train came in at 9:05 we left at 9:42 for an uneventful ride getting into lots of good conversations with other passengers with just one fresh air stop in Winona, MN down along the Mississippi River and through America’s Daryland to Glenview, IL where my relatives picked me up when we arrived two and a half hours late due to a few long stops for other freight trains particularly in Portage. I also enjoyed a quite good soup (spicy ship that was excellent) and salad (just like those at dinner) lunch in the dining car with a friendly elderly couple (there were just three of us at the table) him a retired furniture salesmen. As well as the company of many other travelers in the sightseer lounge car including an optometry salesman on Amtrak for the first time and enjoying the trip down from Minneapolis, a retiree on a train for the first time in 40 years except in Europe, and a Kay a passionate member of MARP (Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers).
This post, like all concerning my train trip adventures, I am planning to turn into a more comprehensive TripLog entry with tons of photos once I edit my notes and add the pictures to them. I have quite a few of going down the Mississippi.