Amtrak Crossroads: Jackson, MI to Chicago
Amtrak Crossroads: Jackson, MI to Chicago
A Coop Article with Ohio Valley Rails and Columbus Wired
By Giles Kennedy
Chief Editor and Founder
Ohio Valley Rails
Family and Travel Columnist
Columbus Wired
Is Amtrak perfect?
No
Is it the only passenger rail service for intercity travel outside of Florida’s Brightline now?
Yes
Should you take an adventure either with your family or by yourself?
Yes
Here’s why.
Ohio currently only has three intercity Amtrak trains coming through the state.
The Lake Shore Limited, The Capital Limited, and The Cardinal.
More on those in a separate article.
The Amtrak Wolverine Service, one of 3 daily trains ran by Michigan Department of Transportation and the Amtrak Midwest Consortium (MI, WI, IL, MO)
They do run on several stops between the eastern portion of the state and Chicago Union Station.
I chose the Wolverine; due to being relatively northwest of Toledo.
Was it a perfect choice?
No. Jackson, Michigan was my choice of start and finish of the day. Their long term parking was in flux. Hence, why I picked a nearby parking lot with a 10 minute walk to and from.
The trip to Chicago was amazing. It was on one of the brand new Venture cars; built by Siemens Mobility California.
The trip back, it was interesting.
I did great in the limited amount of time exploring Downtown Chicago.
I visited the Catalog food venue area at the base of the Willis (Sears) Tower. Unknown to most outside of Chicago; during favorable weather…The Terrace near the base of the Tower is open to the general public.
I didn’t do the Skydeck due to time and cost. But I indeed made the best of it.
Getting on the train back to Jackson. Thank God for the helpful staff at Union Station.
However, an entire German boys and girls youth hockey team held up boarding.
Never saw that coming.
However, several travelers shared their experience.
Tyler, a logistics warehouse manager and Kalamazoo College student, shared his experience.
He had a couple times taken the train to Chicago. He was impressed by the hard working crew, great customer service and comfort.
Elaine; a professional from Kalamazoo, discovered our German friends and the chaos boarding.
Barely those team members and parents spoke English. But, after it was sorted out; we boarded an Amfleet Business Class/Cafe combine car. Michelle; the cafe attendant was extremely kind and offered 1 free round of no alcoholic drinks to the Business Class passengers.
I will go more in depth on the history and railroad operations on our Ohio Valley Rails Article.
The station attendants, trainmen/women and conductors were top shelf.
To deep dive further on using the Amtrak Midwest services as well as the Michigan ran trains; see the following links.
https://www.amtrak.com/midwest-train-routes
https://www.amtrak.com/michigan-services-train
Remember, Life is an adventure…get out there and live it!
