All aboard

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jul 6, 2008 | by Hubbuch, Chris

MILWAUKEE - In the dormitory car of the Empire Builder, Conductor Jim Brando shuffles through the ticket stubs, sorting them by destination and checking them against his manifest as the train zips through the Wisconsin countryside.

It's a 79-mph office.

Leaving Milwaukee, he has 396 passengers, three shy of a full train. The bulk - 88 - are heading to St. Paul. A dozen or so will go the whole 2,206 miles to Seattle. Nineteen will get off in La Crosse.

Twice a day, the stainless steel, double-decker train clatters through La Crosse on its cross- country odyssey.

Once a crossroads for five rail lines, La Crosse now gets only two trains a day - one eastbound, one westbound. But with gasprices at a record high and airline rates climbing, more people are riding the train, and rail advocates are clamoring for more service to the Twin Cities and Chicago.

Diesel-electric locomotives long ago replaced steam engines, and modern trains offer plenty of luxury accommodations for those who can afford them, but onboard the Seattle-Chicago Empire Builder, rail travel still is an adventure.

'Old friends'

While the majority of passengers ride only a segment of the route, a few go for the long haul.

The fortunate ride in the luxury of bedroom suites, with Murphy beds and private showers, or private sleeping compartments. Those on a budget go coach, catching what sleep they can in the reclining seats.

Karen Springsteen and Eli Ochshorn were finishing up a five-week journey around the country - part honeymoon, part celebration of finishing graduate school before starting teaching jobs.

David and Ruth Ann Hoover brought their five children on a two-week adventure. The Mennonite family from Mifflinburg, Penn., rode to Flagstaff, Ariz., visited the Grand Canyon and a friend near Los Angeles, rode up the west coast to Seattle and saw Glacier Park during their circuit of the country.

Last week, they headed to Chicago for the final leg of their journey.

David Hoover, a 33-year-old dairy farmer, surveyed the passing farmland. He still was impressed by Montana and North Dakota.

"I never saw so much wheat in my life," he said.

Amish and Mennonite passengers are a common sight on the Empire Builder.

"There's an atmosphere that's different on the train than any other form of transportation," said George Strombeck, a retired music professor who volunteers during the summer as a National Park Service tour guide. "Everybody seems to be old friends."

The Parks service coordinates the tour guides for the Chicago-Winona leg of the Empire Builder during the summer tourist season. On a recent trip, Strombeck and partner Joe Kuczynski sat in the lounge car offering commentary - and trivia on the Wisconsin landscape. They pointed out cranberry bogs and offered some history of train tunnels as the Empire approached a 1,300-foot tunnel west of Tomah, the only working train tunnel left in the state.

Working on the railroad

Brando is 55 and has been working on trains since 1975. Growing up in Jersey City, N.J., he dreamed of working on the railroad. His father worked for the now-defunct Railway Express Agency, and sometimes Brando would get to ride on the switch engines.

He studied history at Milton College and can talk in detail about the history of railroads. In the Reeseville marsh east of Columbus, Wis., he launches into a story about the construction of the line in 1854, when a locomotive supposedly sank in the muck.

He bemoans the way can and planes - aided by government policy - nearly made rail irrelevant.

"At its peak in 1916, the railroad had 403,000 miles of track," he said. "Today, it's about 210,000."

He's just as quick to point out that passenger rail isn't dead.

The assistant conductor, Ben Bertrand, calls the customer service department to check on upgrading some passengers to a sleeper compartment, but it turns out the sleeping cars are full.

"Yep, nobody rides the train anymore," Brando says sarcastically.

Full trains are more common this year, as more folks than ever are riding the rails.

Amtrak is having the best year in its 37-year history. Nationwide, ridership is up 11 percent since October. So far this year in La Crosse, it's up more than 14 percent, with an average of about 2,400 passengers getting on and off the train each month.

Some ride because it's cheaper than flying. Others point to convenience, camaraderie and the high price of gas, although the La Crosse to Chicago trip still is cheaper to drive, even at $4 per gallon.

Bonnie and Edward Laxton of Onalaska, Wis., recently took their five grandkids for a weekend in Chicago. They wore matching lime green T-shirts commemorating the trip. They cited the price of gas as one motivation for taking the train.

An expensive service

The train is thirsty, slurping about 2.3 gallons of diesel per mile.

But considering the number of passengers on board, it is more energy efficient than either airplanes or automobiles, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The Empire Builder is Amtrak's most popular overnight train, carrying more than half a million pas sengers last year. Such long-distance trains also are Amtrak's costliest service, operating at an annual loss of more than $490 million.