|
The ''Wolverine'' is a higher-speed passenger train service operated by Amtrak as part of its Michigan Services. The 〔 line provides three daily round-trips along the Pontiac–Detroit–Chicago route. It carries a heritage train name descended from the New York Central (Michigan Central). During fiscal year 2011, the ''Wolverine'' carried 503,290 passengers, a 4.9% increase from FY 2010's total of 479,782 passengers. The service had a total revenue of US$18.8 million in FY 2011, an 11% increase from FY 2010's $16.9 million total revenue.〔 ==History== Prior to Amtrak's takeover of most private-sector passenger service in 1971 the ''Wolverine'' was one of three trains which operated over the Michigan Central route between Chicago and Detroit. Under Penn Central operation it continued through South-Western Ontario (Canada) to Buffalo, New York. Amtrak retained two trains (the other was the renamed ''St. Clair'') and truncated the operation to Detroit but otherwise changed little. In April 1975, Amtrak introduced French-built Turboliner equipment to the Michigan route and added a third round-trip. A pool of three Turboliner trainsets served the route, and the three round-trip pairs were numbered 350—355, train numbers which are still in use today. Amtrak dropped the individual train names and rebranded all three ''Turboliner'', in common with similar services to St. Louis, Missouri and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The new equipment led to massive gains in ridership, topping 340,000 in 1975 and 370,000 in 1976.〔 The Turboliners became a victim of their own success. Although fast (and flashy), they were unable to reach their design speed of because of the poor quality of the Penn Central track in Michigan. The five-car fixed consists had a maximum capacity of 292 passengers, which was often not enough. Starting in March 1976 Amtrak began replacing some of the Turboliners with conventional equipment, including new Amfleet coaches. Individual names returned to the corridor, with the heretofore unnamed third train becoming the ''Twilight Limited''.〔 The last Turboliners left the corridor in 1981.〔 Amtrak extended the ''Wolverine'' and ''Twilight Limited'' to Pontiac on May 5, 1994. With this change service began at a new station in Detroit's New Center. Although the Michigan Central Station in Corktown, Detroit had closed on January 6, 1988, trains continued to stop at a temporary platform just east of the old station. Besides Pontiac, new stations were opened at Royal Oak and Troy. The ''Lake Cities'' also began serving Pontiac after the end of Toledo service in 1995.〔 Amtrak dropped individual names again in 2004 and named all three trains ''Wolverine''. Due to the increased ridership on these trains, Amtrak executive Morell Savoy, the Central Division Superintendent, spearheaded a test run of Chicago-Kalamazoo ''Wolverines'' from September 2, 2010, to September 7, 2010. This was done to determine all that would be involved in operations should Amtrak decide to initiate such service in the future.〔"Amtrak Tests Kalamazoo-Chicago Round Trips", ''Trains'', December 2010, 21.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wolverine (train)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|