Pere Marquette (Amtrak Train)
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The ''Pere Marquette'' is a
passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...
in the United States, operated by
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
as part of its
Michigan Services ''Michigan Services'' are three Amtrak passenger rail routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with the Michigan cities of Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Pontiac, and stations en route. The group falls under the Amtrak Midwest brand and is a compo ...
on the route between
Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
, and
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. It is funded in part by the
Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interst ...
and is train 370 eastbound and train 371 westbound. The westbound train leaves Grand Rapids during the morning rush, and the eastbound train leaves Chicago after the afternoon rush, enabling same-day business travel between the two cities. The train is named for a named train of the defunct
Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes (North America), Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadi ...
and in turn for Pere Marquette, Michigan, an early name for Ludington. The town was named for Father Jacques Marquette, a French explorer of the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
region.


History

The original '' Pere Marquette'' was a named train of the
Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes (North America), Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadi ...
, which ran between Detroit and Grand Rapids six times a day. It was extended to Chicago in 1947, when the Pere Marquette Railway was absorbed into the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...
. Service ended on April 30, 1971, the day before
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
took over intercity rail service in the country. Amtrak revived the name for a new Grand Rapids–Chicago service on August 5, 1984, with financial support from the state of Michigan. Initially it served Chicago, Hammond–Whiting, New Buffalo, St. Joseph, Bangor, Holland and Grand Rapids. Service at Hammond–Whiting ended April 29, 2001 (although the ''Wolverine'' still stops there). Service at New Buffalo ended October 26, 2009, when a new station opened on a different alignment. The 1984-opened station in Grand Rapids was replaced with Vernon J. Ehlers Station on a new spur line in 2014. On November 30, 2007, the southbound ''Pere Marquette'' collided with a Norfolk Southern freight train in Chicago, injuring 71 people. The
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...
(NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the collision was the failure of the Amtrak engineer to interpret the signal at Englewood interlocking correctly and Amtrak's failure to ensure that the engineer had the competence to interpret signals correctly across the different territories over which he operated. The NTSB released its findings on the crash on March 31, 2009. In March 2020, the ''Pere Marquette'' was suspended indefinitely as part of a round of service reduction in response to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The train returned on June 29 with the eastbound run to Grand Rapids, with full service in both directions resuming on June 30. In the interim, Grand Rapids' only connection to the national system was an
Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...
that connected with the ''
Wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...
'' at Kalamazoo. Around 2021, MDOT initiated the design and engineering needed to connect the Amtrak Michigan Line to the CSX tracks north of New Buffalo station. This would allow the ''Pere Marquette'' to serve New Buffalo, providing a connection to ''Blue Water'' and ''Wolverine'' trains. It would also allow for service on the ''Pere Marquette'' between
New Buffalo, Michigan New Buffalo is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,708 during the 2020 census. History The area around the mouth of the Galien River was originally populated by Miami and Potawatomi peoples. Later, Fren ...
and
Porter, Indiana Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 5,210 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Porter is in t ...
.


Operations


Route

The ''Pere Marquette'' operates over
Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
and
CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...
trackage: *Norfolk Southern between Chicago and
Porter, Indiana Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 5,210 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Porter is in t ...
*CSX between Porter, Indiana and Grand Rapids


Equipment

A typical ''Pere Marquette'' consists of: *One
Siemens Charger The Siemens Charger is a family of diesel-electric/ dual-mode passenger locomotives designed and manufactured by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. There are five variants of the Charger, tailored for different operators and types ...
locomotive or GE P42DC (lead) *One
married pair A twin unit, twinset, or double unit is a set of two railroad Railway car, cars or locomotives which are permanently coupled and treated as if they were a single unit. A twinset of cars or coaches can also be called a twin car. In US passenger ...
of
Siemens Venture Siemens Venture is a type of locomotive-hauled passenger railroad car built by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. The cars are derived from the Siemens Viaggio Comfort cars used in Europe, with adaptations for North American operat ...
coach cars and one
Amfleet Amfleet is a fleet of single-level intercity railroad passenger car (rail), passenger cars built by the Budd Company for American company Amtrak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Budd based the Amfleet design on its earlier Budd Metroliner, Me ...
or
Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...
Café / Business car


Stations


References


Notes


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Amtrak routes Amtrak routes Passenger rail transportation in Illinois Passenger rail transportation in Indiana Passenger rail transportation in Michigan West Michigan Railway services introduced in 1984