Amtrak’s northbound Saluki rolls through Humboldt, Illinois, on Nov. 6.
Amtrak is using a time-honored trick to try to improve on-time performance in its Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois, corridor.
Starting Jan. 16, it will reschedule some trains to operate later at intermediate points. However, the running times of those trains between Chicago and Carbondale will remain the same.
The scheduled rimes for the northbound Saluki (No. 390) and Illini (No. 392 at Effingham, Mattoon, and Champaign-Urbana will be two to 10 minutes later. Times at Rantoul, Gilman, and Kankakee will be 10 to 20 minutes later, while Homewood will be 26 minutes later.
Time for the southbound Saluki (No. 391) and Illini (No. 393) will be three to 10 minutes later at Kankakee, Gilman, and Rantoul, and 20 to 28 minutes later at Champaign-Urbana, Mattoon, Effingham, Centralia, and Du Quoin.
The arrival and departure times at Chicago and Carbondale for all four trains will remain unchanged. Also unchanged are the schedules of the City of New Orleans which uses the corridor during its daily trek between Chicago and New Orleans.
Amtrak and host railroad Canadian National have been locked in a dispute for years over time keeping for trains in the Chicago-Carbondale corridor and it is unclear if the schedule changes are a result of that dispute.
The Saluki and Illini are largely funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Passengers board the southbound Illini in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, on May 29, 2001
Track work being performed by host railroad Canadian National will result in bus substitutions on Dec. 13 in the Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois, corridor.
On that date, the Saluki and Illini in both directions will be cancelled and replaced by bus service.
Buses 3390 and 3392 will operate from Carbondale to Chicago in lieu of Trains 390 (northbound Saluki) and 382 (northbound Illini). Express bus 3090 will operate from Champaign-Urbana to Chicago in lieu of Train 390.
Buses 3391 and 3393 will operate from Chicago to Carbondale in lieu of Train 391 (southbound Saluki) and 393 (southbound Illini). Express bus 3093 will operate from Chicago to Champaign-Urbana.
Buses will operate on the normal train schedule, but will not serve the intermediate stations of Du Quoin, Rantoul, Gilman and Kankakee.
The track work will not affect the Chicago-New Orleans City of New Orleans, which uses the same tracks between Chicago and Carbondale as the Illini and Saluki.
CN track work also continues to affect operations of the southbound Illini through Dec. 20.
No. 393 will depart Chicago at 5:05 p.m., an hour later than scheduled, and maintain that schedule to Carbondale.
Amtrak’s northbound Saluki sees some late fall foliage color in Humboldt, Illinois, on Nov. 6. The equipment for Train 390 turns in Chicago to become the southbound Illini later in the day.
Track work by host railroad Canadian National has the Chicago to Carbondale, Illini, operating an hour later than scheduled through Dec. 20.
Train 393 will depart Chicago Union Station during the period at 5:05 p.m. and hold that later schedule at all stations en route to Carbondale.
The track work does not affect operations of the Carbondale to Chicago Saluki.
Amtrak has extended the suspension of two Wolverine Service trains until Oct. 24.
In announcing the suspensions earlier this month, the passenger carrier had said that Nos. 350 and 355 were being suspended due to lack of crews and equipment.
At the time, the trains were to have been reinstated on Sept. 17.
No. 350 is the early morning departure from Chicago while No. 355 departs Pontiac, Michigan, in suburban Detroit in late afternoon.
Two other Wolverine Service roundtrips are unaffected by the service suspensions.
Service suspensions also remain in effect on two other Midwest corridor routes.
Lincoln Service Trains 300 and 305 remain suspended through at least Oct. 23.
No. 300 is scheduled to depart St. Louis at 4:35 a.m. while No. 304 is scheduled to depart Chicago at 5:20 p.m.
The Chicago-St. Louis route continues to field three other Lincoln Service roundtrips plus the Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle.
Suspended until at least Dec. 5 is the Saluki from Chicago to Carbondale, Illinois, and the Illini from Carbondale to Chicago.
The former departs Chicago in the morning while the latter leaves Carbondale in late afternoon.
The trains were suspended last January due to shortages of operating crews and equipment.
One factor keeping the trains sidelined is the insistence of host railroad Canadian National that all trains on the Chicago-Carbondale route use Superliner equipment.
Until about two years ago, the State of Illinois-sponsored Chicago-Carbondale trains used Horizon and Amfleet equipment.
Other trains in the Chicago-Carbondale corridor include the northbound Saluki, which departs Carbondale in the morning, and the southbound Illini, which departs Chicago in late afternoon.
The City of New Orleans between Chicago and New Orleans also covers the corridor but is operating just five days a week. Nos. 58 and 59 are slated to resume daily operation on Oct. 8.
A bridge project being conducted by host railroad Canadian National will affect the operation of Amtrak trains in the Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois, corridor March 19-21.
In a service advisory, Amtrak said Nos. 390 and 393 will not operate between Chicago and Homewood, Illinois, on all three days.
Passengers will be transported by bus between those two stations.
Train 390, the northbound Saluki, and Train 393, the southbound Illini, will originate and terminate in Homewood.
Train 390 will depart Carbondale at 8 a.m., 30 minutes later than normal while Train 393 will depart Homewood at 5:16 p.m., 30 minutes later than normal.
The bridge work will not affect operations of the City of New Orleans, which operates between Chicago and New Orleans.
The southbound Saluki arrives in Effingham, Illinois, on Sept. 12, 2021.
The southbound Saluki arrives in Effingham, Illinois, behind an SC-44 Charger locomotive.
Back in July Amtrak sent me an email warning that my Amtrak Guest Rewards account had been inactive for 24 months and my points would expire in mid September.
The email listed ways to keep my account active including buying an Amtrak ticket or redeeming points for travel or Amtrak-branded merchandise.
I filed all of this in my “to do” mental folder. As September dawned I needed to do something.
My account had 21,000 points, which isn’t enough for a spectacular trip, but I didn’t want to lose those points either.
I thought about using points for a day trip to Chicago on the Cardinal. I also considered making a short trip from Effingham to Mattoon, Illinois, on the Saluki, an Illinois Department of Transportation funded train between Chicago and Carbondale.
The distance between those two towns is 27 miles and the trip takes just 24 minutes. That wouldn’t be much of a train ride.
Instead I decided on something I hadn’t done since 1983.
The equipment for the southbound Saluki lays over in Carbondale for 2 hours, 20 minutes before returning to Chicago as the Illini.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s I had on occasion ridden Train 391 from Mattoon to Carbondale and returned that evening on Train 392. In those days they were named the Shawnee.
Since I was last in Carbondale, the Illinois Central passenger station has been renovated and received an IC equipment display of a GP11 and caboose. I could photograph that.
Amtrak opened a new Carbondale station three blocks south in October 1981. I have hundreds of photographs of Amtrak trains on the former Main Line of Mid-America but none in Carbondale.
However, instead of leaving from Mattoon, I would depart from Effingham.
I planned to use points for the trip but that changed when I discovered a one-way non-refundable fare of $8. Even if for some reason I couldn’t make the trip I would only be out $16.
I booked it for Sunday, Sept. 12, a mere three days before my points were to expire.
Booking travel on Amtrak is more involved than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
You must click a box agreeing to wear a mask in stations and aboard the train.
Amtrak also tried to get me to buy trip insurance. Did they really think I was going to do that for a $16 ticket?
The afternoon before my trip Amtrak sent me an email directing me to fill out a short form online. Aside from the standard COVID symptoms questions that I’ve become used to answering every time I visit a doctor I also had to agree – again – to wear a mask.
On the day of the trip I arrived at the Effingham station three hours before train time to get in some railfanning before No. 391 arrived.
Effingham back in the day had a station used by the IC and Pennsylvania Railroad. Flanking the passenger station were express depots for both railroads.
Today the passenger station is a cosmetology school and the ex-PRR express depot is used by a catering company as a kitchen.
Amtrak uses half of the ex-IC express depot with the other half used by a tattoo parlor.
I arrived to find work underway to rebuild the Amtrak boarding platform, which complicated my photography due to high construction zone fences and orange fabric barriers.
CSX sent one train through town, an eastbound grain train, while Canadian National sent two northbounds and a southbound past the station.
A CN train working the yard came north of the diamonds for headroom and to clear the block before going back into the yard.
Three of the four CN trains had IC SD70 locomotives wearing the pre-merger IC black “death star” livery.
One of the southbounds had a motive power consist of two IC “death stars” and a Grand Trunk Western geep in its original livery. Talk about a heritage consist.
I also observed the coming and going of the northbound Saluki.
For nearly a year Amtrak has assigned Superliner equipment to its Chicago-Carbondale trains. The Saluki and Illini are pulled by SC-44 Charger locomotives owned by IDOT and leased by Amtrak.
My foray to Carbondale would be my first trip behind a Charger locomotive. Interestingly, my first trip aboard a Superliner coach was a day trip to Carbondale in June 1979 when the then-new cars were in break-service on Midwest corridor trains before being assigned to the Empire Builder that October.
No. 391 was about 15 minutes late. I stood alone on the platform, mask firmly in place, the only passenger to board on this day.
I wasn’t surprised. When I had bought my ticket Train 391 was shown as at 13 percent of capacity.
I presented my ticket to the conductor but he said he had already checked me off. About 10 passengers disembarked.
I was one of just two passengers in my coach. The conductor came to my seat and asked if I had ridden with Amtrak before.
Yes, I have – many times actually – but not since before the pandemic. The conductor noted there was a café car up ahead. I didn’t plan to patronize it but thanked the conductor for that information anyway.
I settled back in my seat and enjoyed watching the countryside pass by. It had been more than three decades since I had seen Southern Illinois in daylight from the vantage point of an Amtrak coach window.
As we slowed for the Centralia station, a northbound BNSF coal train passed on an adjacent track. It had a distributed power unit on the rear.
Centralia was once the home of a large IC car shop. As best I could determine, most of that complex is gone.
It used to be that southbound passenger trains went around the Centralia yard complex on the west side. That wasn’t the case today although I could see that track still goes over that way.
We passed the yard on the east side.
The yard had a moderate number of freight cars and some motive power, including the two “death stars” and GTW geep I had seen earlier. A massive coaling tower still stands in the yard.
Our next stop was Du Quoin where Amtrak shares a small modern depot with the local chamber of commerce. It opened in August 1989.
Carbondale used to have a large yard, too, but most of it is gone. The former St. Louis division offices were razed years ago.
All that’s left are a few tracks and the twin coaling towers that stand near where the roundhouse used to be.
Due to schedule padding we arrived at the Carbondale station 15 minutes early and slightly less than two hours after leaving Effingham
It turns out most of the Carbondale passengers had been in other coaches.
Shortly after No. 391 arrived, the crew backed the equipment north to the yard and turned it on a wye track.
I made photographs of the ferry move in both directions passing the former IC station.
It was a warm day and I walked to a Circle K to get a large bottle of Gatorade. I walked around a bit, photographing the old IC station, which houses a small railroad museum that wasn’t open on this day, as well as offices of the chamber of commerce and a non-profit organization that promotes downtown Carbondale.
A statue of an IC conductor pays tribute to the railroad’s long history in Carbondale, which used to be where St. Louis cars were added or removed from trains bound to and from New Orleans and Florida.
A northbound CN tank car train came through during my layover.
I was dismayed to find the Carbondale Amtrak station is only open during the day on Wednesdays. But it’s open seven days a week at night to accommodate passengers for the City of New Orleans, which arrives in both directions in the dead of night.
There were around 50 of us waiting outside the station.
There would be just one conductor on tonight’s Train 392. He opened two doors of the train and stood on the platform.
I was expecting him to come up to the crowd and announce that boarding was ready to begin.
Instead he raised an arm and waved it a bit, which I interpreted as a signal to come out and get on board.
I started walking toward the train and the crowd followed me. Everyone was put in the same car.
We left on time and made the same stops as we had earlier. In Centralia I spotted a young man running from the parking lot toward the train, which was about done boarding.
If the conductor saw him, he ignored him because the train began moving. I expected the conductor to see the guy and order the engineer to stop. But we kept going.
CN and Amtrak have been at loggerheads for years over a number of operating issues including CN’s edict that Amtrak operate with a minimum number of axles to ensure that grade crossing signals are activated.
That is in part why I was riding a train with seven Superliner cars with far fewer passengers than the train’s capacity.
Amtrak and CN also have sparred over dispatching with Amtrak accusing CN of needlessly delaying Amtrak’s trains.
I know from years of experience in riding Amtrak between Mattoon and Chicago that delays due to freight train interference are not uncommon, particularly around Champaign.
But on this day we didn’t meet a single CN freight during on my trip.
I was the only passenger getting off at Effingham. Seven people were waiting on the platform to board.
A woman at the back of the line was not wearing a facial mask and the conductor refused to let her board.
I don’t know why she was maskless, but as I walked to my car I noticed the conductor had placed the step box aboard the train and stood in the doorway as the woman gestured while making her case – whatever that was – for not wearing a mask.
The conductor was having none of it and No. 392 left with the woman standing on the platform.
It had been an enjoyable outing and not all that much different from other trips I’ve made on Amtrak. The number of passengers aboard was less than I expected given that it was a Sunday, which normally is a heavy travel day on this route.
Sometime within the next year new Siemens Venture cars are expected to be assigned to Midwest corridor trains and maybe I’ll do another Carbondale roundtrip to experience them.
Two IC SD70s and a Grant Trunk geep pass the under construction new boarding platform in Effingham.The DPU on a northbound BNSF coal train in CentraliaDisembarking at the Carbondale Amtrak station.The equipment for the Illini backs past the former IC station in Carbondale.A northbound CN tank car train passes the Carbondale Amtrak station where the Illini awaits its 4:05 p.m. departure.
The waiting room of the Amtrak station in Carbondale, Illinois, has been closed temporarily for Trains 391 (southbound Saluki) and 392 (northbound Illini) until further notice.
Amtrak said in a service advisory that trains will continue to stop at the station and passengers will have access to platforms.
Passengers traveling on Trains 391 and 392 will not have access to the inside of the station or restrooms during this time.
The waiting room will be available for other trains, including the City of New Orleans in both directions and the northbound Saluki and southbound Illini.
Amtrak’s northbound Illini has finished its station work in Centralia, Illinois, and is headed toward its next station stop in Effingham. Train 392 originated in Carbondale and will end its journey at Chicago Union Station later this evening.
The train has a typical consist for Midwest corridor service of Horizon Fleet coaches along with one lone Amfleet food service car tucked in behind the P42DC locomotive pulling the train.
Suspended Illinois-funded corridor trains will resume operation on July 19. On the same day, the Vermonter and Ethan Allen Express will also return to service.
The Illinois Department of Transportation said that it is restoring service as part of its Rebuild Illinois capital plan.
One daily roundtrip each will be added to the Chicago-Quincy and Chicago-Carbondale routes while two roundtrips will be restored to the Chicago-St. Louis corridor.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Chicago-Quincy Carl Sandburg was suspended along with the Chicago to Carbondale Saluki and Carbondale to Chicago Illini.
Those suspended trains left Chicago in the morning and returned in the evening.
In Vermont, the Vermont Agency of Transportation said the Vermonter will return between St. Albans, Vermont, and Washington.
Also coming back is the Ethan Allen Express between Rutland, Vermont, and New York.
Harsh winter weather continued to lead to delays and cancellations for Amtrak on Wednesday, including in the Midwest.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said a week of temperatures near zero caused a series of “weather-related equipment issues.”
A Chicago-Port Huron, Michigan Blue Water round trip was cancelled on Wednesday as a result.
Reportedly, the problem involved the train’s two Charger locomotives and Amtrak maintenance was unable to fix the issue.
The same day the Chicago-bound Pere Marquette, which originates in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was terminated at its first intermediate stop in Hollard, Michigan, due to equipment problems.
Passengers were transferred to a bus to complete their journey to their destination.
Several corridor and long-distance trains that did operate on Tuesday and Wednesday encountered lengthy departure delays from Chicago.
After a late Tuesday arrival in Chicago from Carbondale, Illinois, the Saluki was canceled on Wednesday and its counterpart to Carbondale, the Illini, was cancelled that day.
Both trains were cancelled on Wednesday. Reportedly the problem that led to the cancellation of the Illini was a computer issue on the locomotive that locked up the brakes so that they would not release.
Elsewhere, Amtrak canceled trains in Virginia and the Carolinas ahead of a winter storm expected to bring ice and snow to the region.
The Auto Train was cancelled in both directions on today. Also cancelled were trains that terminate at Norfolk, Newport News, and Roanoke in Virginia, and the Palmetto to Savannah, Georgia.
The northbound counterparts to these trains have been cancelled for Thursday and Friday.
In the West the Coast Starlight has resumed operating over its entire route.
However, Wednesday departures of the Sunset Limited from Los Angeles and New Orleans were cancelled.
The Texas Eagle will originate in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday as scheduled. The westbound Texas Eagle will resume departing from Chicago on Friday.
The Oklahoma City-Fort Worth, Texas, Heartland Flyer remains suspended until Feb. 20.
Amtrak said in a service advisory that trains will continue to stop at the station and passengers will have access to platforms.
The Illinois Department of Transportation said that it is restoring service as part of its Rebuild Illinois capital plan.
Amtrak in the Heartland 