A third train could use the Borealis improvements

A stringline plot of currently-scheduled train trips on the St. Paul–Milwaukee–Chicago corridor shown in red, with three options for extending Hiawatha trains that would benefit from the track improvements in Winona through La Crosse

Yesterday, Star Tribune reporter Greta Kaul posted:

That's great news, especially on the ridership front! I am, however, very accustomed to politicians and reporters misstating and misinterpreting anything and everything about train services, so I'm hoping there will be a follow-up article clarifying a few things. For today, I'll take it as a win and hope that we'll soon see another trip pair following the current route.

While writing my previous article on where track improvements are being made with the initial Borealis-related funds, the thought did occur to me that future trips on the corridor could make use of those new sidings and rearranged rails between Winona and La Crosse, even if the current Borealis trips are largely moving through there without trouble.

Since the Borealis is an extension of Hiawatha trains 1333 (westbound/northbound) and 1340 (eastbound/southbound), I took a look at other Hiawatha trips to see which ones would be scheduled to pass by other Amtrak trains in that general area.

Train 329 which departs Chicago at 6:10 am would meet eastbound Empire Builder no. 8 around there, and train 331 departing Chicago at 8:25 am would meet Borealis train 1340 in that zone. Assuming the schedules are duplicated exactly from existing Borealis train 1333, they would be scheduled to arrive at St. Paul Union Depot at 1:39 pm and 3:54 pm.

In the other direction, extending Hiawatha train 342 back to St. Paul would have it departing from here at 1:40 pm, and it would meet westbound/northbound Borealis train 1340 right around La Crosse.

These are not the only times that an added train could run, but are ones that would best leverage the existing investment.

If Amtrak is only able to provide one set of train equipment, the best option here would probably be to use the 6:10 am train 329 from Chicago, then have it only stay in St. Paul long enough to head back at around 3 or 4 pm, and arrive back in Chicago in the 10:30 pm to 11:30 pm time frame. That would add a later trip between Milwaukee and Chicago on the Hiawatha corridor, though who knows if that trip would require additional track improvements there. That's somewhat appealing since the return trip roughly mirrors the Empire Builder schedule from Chicago to St. Paul.

I'd like to see some morning arrival options for St. Paul, though I'd be hesitant to try and run a night train with Horizon coaches, for the sake of passenger comfort, but I'm sure there would be people who'd take advantage of it.

There are many different possibilities for when a third daily train pair could run, and that's not even counting the potential variations through Eau Claire and Madison that are in the planning pipeline. Both of those will require significant investment in track rehabilitation (and the most straightforward Eau Claire routing actually has a gap of about 10 miles where track was removed and needs to be fully replaced)

I'm anxious about funding and, well, ~everything~, but let's hope things really can happen quickly this time around. Next year, when Winona–La Crosse track improvements are done? Sure would be nice.