It’s a test run, so they’re testing the grade crossing equipment.

Any train has priority at a standard railroad grade crossing.

I remember hearing JR Central do a presentation at a conference in Denver in 2009 (just after ARRA passed) and they talked about wanting to bring their coupling technology to the U.S. for local routes that could couple quickly onto the NEC, CAHSR, Texas Central, etc.
youtu.be/5OEN2EVEsZc

I was hoping to find this photo yesterday. It needs to be this easy. Often the conductors are on the platform pointing to the other train. Don’t make people transfer by going over or under without at least 10 mins to transfer.

The optimistic take is all those limitations (aside from the curve restrictions: don’t know enough about the engineering there) could be changed with political will. They could happen overnight…(not saying they will anytime soon)

Metro North/Shore Line East has a bunch of interesting overlapping schedules, with some SLE trips continuing as far as Stamford, but the bulk stopping at New Haven with very precise cross-platform transfers to the Metro North or the Hartford Line.

They do these all the time in the planning process in the U.S. They’ll hire AECOM or Jacobs or WPS (that everyone blames for cost escalation) and they’ll deliver a feasibility report that optimizes ridership.

I’m always receptive to arguments (especially with data/modeling) to split up corridors with well-timed transfers for reliability.
But I’m also receptive when a longer corridor is serving few end-to-end riders but offers myriad permutations of city pairs. @hsrail.bsky.social has some nice graphics.

If you want to go from Evanston to Racine or MKE currently, you’re likely not finding a way to get to the Hiawatha. I’d expect Hiawatha to actually gain riders with Metra KRM because CHI-MKE travelers would have more total options rather than siphoning off any from the Hiawatha.

The goal is connecting Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha. Since Metra is in Kenosha already, just hire them to run new service rather than creating a new entity to operate the service. Also not concerned about competition with the Hiawatha, which is/would be faster (more direct, fewer stops).

This is much more like Rhode Island contracting with the MBTA to provide service west/south of Providence, where some (but not all trips) run the full corridor to Boston. Or LA Metrolink’s Perris Valley Line mostly running Perris-Riverside, with some going all the way to LA.

Adding to @realeric4real.bsky.social’s comments, I think the “commuter rail” phraseology is insufficient for what they’re planning. Moreso regional rail beyond the standard peak direction/hours format. And contracting with Metra, to me, doesn’t mean all service is MKE-CHI but some trips would.

It was so close…
I passed over the ROW at least once a week as a kid and was always looking for signs of activity.
They’d talked about just doing it as an above-ground shuttle, transferring at LaSalle. But political will was limited, both in the town and county/state level.

In 1986, the system’s initial buildout was completed as the then-South Campus (now University) station became the northern terminus, extending a short distance from the initial northern terminal of LaSalle, which opened the year before. I rode on Opening Day for both stations.