Absolutely horrible news today about Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. We worked with Rep. Hortman for years on passenger rail issues. She was a forward thinker when it came our mission and cause along with transit for the entire state. In our opinion, she was a very effective politician and well respected. This is a huge loss for the state of Minnesota. Our sincere condolences for the Hortman family.

All Aboard Minnesota is very concerned about Steven Gardner's departure from Amtrak, its potential implications, and Elon Musk's calls for privatization. We adamantly oppose any service cuts, including the long-distance trains and our Empire Builder. The ridership and economic success of the Borealis prove that people in our region want more rail passenger service, not less. We are in favor of any reform to the Amtrak model that brings about more and improved service and removes Amtrak from the annual Congressional appropriations cycle with secure sources of stable funding, just like highways and airlines receive. We urge you to contact the Minnesota Congressional delegation, Representative Betty McCollum, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, and the Governor's office to voice your support for Amtrak. We will keep you posted as this situation unfolds.

FRA sends Amtrak long-distance service study to Congress. In the report, the FRA prioritizes 15 new long-distance routes and calls for restoration of Amtrak's daily service on its Cardinal and Sunset Limited routes. The FRA worked on the study from 2022 to 2024, during which time it received over 50,000 stakeholder and public comments that indicated overwhelming support for long-distance services or passenger rail in general, the report states. The final report also recommends consideration of a new long-distance committee made up of stakeholders from across the country — including host railroads, states and communities served by Amtrak long-distance routes, Amtrak and the FRA — that could serve as a forum for feedback and discussion related to current Amtrak long-distance service. https://www.progressiverailroading.com/amtrak/news/FRA-sends-Amtrak-long-distance-service-study-to-Congress--73711

If the government funded these Amtrak routes, 39 million more people would have rail access. A new map, as part of a recent Federal Railroad Administration study, shows what the country could look like if 15 additional long-distance routes were added. With those rail lines, previously stranded regions of the country are suddenly connected with bright lines representing passenger rail. They would make the country’s rail network considerably fuller and would bring rail service to all of the lower 48 states. These 15 potential new Amtrak routes would add more than 23,000 rail miles to the system, serve more than 60 new metropolitan areas, and provide rail access to 39 million people that currently don’t have it. https://www.fastcompany.com/91266350/this-map-shows-how-good-amtrak-could-be-if-only-the-government-would-pay

Minnesota Legislature

Is not off to a good start. Due to several disputed Minnesota House seats, neither party has a quorum, and the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Friday January 25 that the House cannot conduct its business without a quarum. Democrats sought a power seeking resolution, but that has not come to pass as of January 26. Hearings for the week of January 27 have been cancelled until these issues are resolved. In the meantime though, several bills have been introduced to cancel and claw back appropriations approved last session for transit, commuter rail, and Northern Lights Express. These bills include:

HF14 (Robbins) Temporary moratorium established on certain light rail transit expenditures.

HF 84 (Koznick) Commissioner of transportation and Metropolitan Council required to request approval to discontinue Northstar passenger rail operations, and report required

HF 85 (Koznick) Northstar Commuter Rail line performance requirements and conditional termination established.

HF240 (Anderson, P E) Northern Lights Express passenger rail project expenditures prohibited.

HF241 (Anderson P E) Passenger rail appropriation modified.

All Aboard Minnesota obviously vigorously opposes these bills, and we will testify against them when these bills are heard. It should be clear to Minnesota Legislators that Minnesotans want more rail passenger service, not less. The success of the Borealis is a clear measure that when rail service is provided, people will use it. As we have reported also, the Empire Builder has seen an increase in ridership over last year. Please contact your Minnesota House and Senate representatives, along with the Governors office, and tell them you oppose these bills. Citizen advocacy works!

Speaking of the Borealis - as we just reported on the December 2024 numbers, ridership remains very strong, and the train is likely to exceed its forecast for annual ridership within the first eight months. See the full report on the the "New Train 2nd Train - Twin Cities to Chicago" landing page in the About section of this site. We've also published some interesting ridership analysis of the Borealis, and its financial and on time performance.

Twin Cities - Des Moines - Kansas City -

All Aboard Minnesota recently published a comprehensive report and anlaysis on this route, about what it would take to restore passenger service on this line. We strongly believe it has strong potential, and have asked MnDOT to consider this route for a future FRA Corridor ID application. We have provided the report to MnDOT, Iowa DOT, MoDOT, chairs of the House and Senate Transportation Committees, the Governors office, and Rep. Melissa Hortman. You can read the full report on the About - Our Vision - Twin Cities - Des Moines - Kansas City Route page. We will keep you posted with any developments.

With the changing Presidency the year ahead could prove challenging for passenger rail. The first Trump administration was quite hostile to Amtrak and wanted to severely cut funding. With the IIJA act passed in 2022, there was $66B included for Amtrak, $36B of which was for Federal and State partnerships to advance new Corridors, as we have reported on. Could the new Trump administration claw that money back? It's possible but there has always been strong bi-partisan support in Congress for Amtrak and it would take an act of Congress to do it. With such slim majorities in the House and Senate, the undoing of the IIJA seems fairly unlikely. Even many US Reps and Senators from red states know the value Amtrak brings to their constituents. Trump's new Secretary of Transportation, Congressman Duffy (WI-7th) hasn't made any comments about Amtrak, but we know for certain he is quite hostile to Amtrak through previous votes. Time will tell.

Trump on the other hand, has made positive statements about high speed rail: “And you know, it's sad, because I've seen some of the greatest trains, I find it fascinating, and I've seen the systems and how they work, and the bullet trains they call them… they go unbelievably fast, unbelievably comfortable with no problems, and we don't have anything like that in this country, not even close,” said President-elect Trump in an August 2024 interview with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. “It doesn't make sense that we don't, doesn't make sense.”

What does it look like in Minnesota? Democrats hold a one seat majority in the Senate, and it appears the GOP now holds a one seat majority in the House. A judge just ruled that the Democrat who narrowly won district 54B, which would have provided an even split between Democrats and the GOP in the house, is now disqualified as he didn't meet the residency rule. Democrats have appealed the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court. We are hopeful, however, that the immediate and ongoing success of the Borealis, not only from a ridership perspective, but financial performance perspective, will change the debate for expansion of passenger rail in Minnesota positively. We will keep you posted on developments this session and ask for your support through action alerts if needed. Stay tuned!

For All Aboard Minnesota's part, we will continue to advocate and educate for the extension of the Borealis from St. Paul to Fargo, through St. Cloud on the Empire Builder route, and new Twin Cities to Kansas City service. We will also work with our Wisconsin partners for new service to Madison and Green Bay, a second Borealis frequency, and a new Twin Cities to Chicago train through Madison, and EauClaire, WI.

We have just sourced from WisDOT, MnDOT, Amtrak, and the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passenger a number of statistics and information about the Borealis performance this summer and Amtrak's fiscal year which ended on September 30, 2024. This information is all posted on the "New 2nd Train: Twin Cities to Chicago Borealis" page in this News and Media section. Bottom line, the Borealis is the best performing corridor service in the upper midwest based upon ridership and financial performance. The success continues! Check it all out.

As we have for many years now, All Aboard Minnesota attended the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commisions annual meeting, which was held at the St. Paul Union Depot in November 2024 Here are some of the highlights from that meeting about what is happening for passenger rail expansion in states around us:

In addition to Minnesota progressing on the Twin Cities to Duluth service (NLX) there is a great deal happening in the states around Minnesota to advance passenger rail. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Michigan seeks to expand service frequencies on all three of their current state corridor routes, extend service into Canada, establish service in the Detroit - Toledo - Cleveland corridor, add more new equipment, and increase speeds to 110 mph

2. Wisconsin which wants to extend service from Milwaukee to Green Bay, and Madison, along with a third Twin Cities to Chicago train routed through Eau Claire, and looking to add a second Borealis frequency

3. Oklahoma which seeks to connect the Heartland Flyer with the Southwest Chief in either Kansas City or Newton

4. Indiana which wants to increase speed between Indianapolis and Chicago, making the Cardinal long distance train daily, establish daily service between Indianapolis and Chicago, establish service from Indianapolis to Louisville, and is in Step 1 of the Corridor ID program to establish service in the Chicago -Ft. Wayne - Columbus - Pittsburgh corridor

5. Missouri wants to add additional frequencies to the Missouri River Runner and increase speeds to 110mph from Lincoln

6. Iowa is in step 1 of the Corridor ID program to establish service from Chicago to the Quad Cities. Plans are to establish two roundtrips daily

Many of these services are planned to be operational by 2027 if all goes well. Lots happening, lets hope many of these plans come to fruition. We will keep you posted.

Trains Article Analysis - WASHINGTON — The increases weren’t large compared to pre-pandemic 2019, but more Northeast Regional frequencies enabled Amtrak to capture enough travel demand to beat the company’s previous overall record ridership in fiscal 2024. Also, a 24% gain in ticket revenue from long-distance trains compared to 2019, in spite of constricted coach and sleeping car capacity, generated a 6% rise in total revenue.

These are among the takeaways from Amtrak’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30, as revealed in the 2024 monthly performance report released late last week. A table below provides a closer look at how price and patronage interact on some services.

The money generated on trains that travel more than 750 miles (even if passengers aboard might not) is up sharply from 2019. Diminished capacity led to fewer riders on trains like the Texas Eagle, which operated with more sleeping car capacity (it had a transition sleeper) and additional coaches. The situation has recently been partially rectified [see “Amtrak adds to Texas Eagle capacity …,” Trains News Wire, July 29, 2024]. Southwest Chief patronage suffered because, until recently, it was routinely assigned only two Superliner coaches when the train previously had three or four in peak season. On the other hand, the Capitol Limited’s expansion of coach and sleeping car capacity between 2023 and 2024 paid immediate dividends. Another success story is Auto Train, the only long-distance train that maintained daily frequencies throughout the pandemic. It capitalized on higher gas prices in 2023 but marginally lost clientele in 2024 when gas prices retreated.

Added frequencies create exponential ridership gains

Hands-on management and a reliable funding commitment at the state level have allowed Virginia, North Carolina, and Maine to actively promote their service and add round trips. Price reductions coupled with more Virginia-sponsored frequencies to Norfolk and Roanoke have resulted in sustained growth, while additional Piedmonts between Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C., have made the service more relevant. Both Wisconsin’s Hiawathas and California’s Pacific Surfliner were among the operations hurt by a change in commuting patterns; landslide disruptions on the route to San Diego also injected cancellations. But the introduction of the Borealis as an extension to one of the Hiawatha round trips, providing an extra frequency on the previously once-daily Empire Builder route to the Twin Cities helped counteract that shortfall.

Capacity, frequency yields dividends

The complete document available on Amtrak’s website contains a variety of other “route level results.”

The table below, derived from that section, shows that a key factor in the Northeast Corridor’s strong performance is how the number of train starts grew from fiscal 2023 to 2024 (comparable data was not provided in the 2019 report). This was accomplished by introducing quick terminal turns with push-pull equipment for Northeast Regional trains and squeezing more departures out of an Acela fleet in which trainsets have been permanently sidelined. The small increases in the other categories were the result of Amtrak’s belated return to daily operation of some long-distance trains in the fall of 2022, and more Cascades, Piedmont, and Virginia round trips.

Also note the relationship between length of trips and frequencies. The Northeast Corridor’s 24,530 trains produced 2.5 billion passenger-miles while the long-distance network generated about 2.2 billion passenger miles with 13,047 fewer departures. Meanwhile, state-supported service delivered the fewest passenger-miles with almost 70% of the trains. While all these numbers may make eyes glaze over, they show the ways beyond ridership and revenue that Amtrak’s network can be valued.