I got VERY LUCKY on this January trip aboard Amtrak’s train 7, the Empire Builder from Chicago to St. Paul, MN. I was really just hoping to show y’all how this long distance train experience is preferable to the spartan Borealis with its three coaches, but the significances of my portion of this particular trip kept adding up…
- First Empire Builder to run in five or six days due to severe cold & snow nationwide!
- On-time or early to all station stops!
- My first BidUp Roomette Upgrade off a $125 POOR BID!
- And my last trip with the Twin Cities as my destination!
(wait, what?)
Produced by Megandsteve Travel, 2026.
Recorded January, 2026.
Made with Da Vinci Resolve 20
Transcript
Transcribed by Ian R Buck
[00:00:00] Steve: On a January afternoon too cold to be walking around with a camera on the far west side of Chicago, I had just begun to make my way back downtown after Starship Restaurant made me a lunch of hot pizza bread and a cold sub featuring both Thousand Island and Ranch dressings. Just superb. After a ride on these nearly new 7000 Series Blue Line trains, I’m bound to ride something much older back to St. Paul. It’s another ride up the old Milwaukee Road route and this time we’ve got options for how we can enjoy ourselves. Let’s get started.
[00:00:54] Steve: Last time I took Amtrak from Chicago to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, I didn’t have that good of a time. It was on the state-sponsored train Borealis. I prefer the Empire Builder and today I’m going to show you why. It’s a different train, it’s an older train, it takes the same route but there’s a lot of differences and to me there’s just enough small luxuries that make it a better trip versus the one with better timing, the Borealis. One of the greatest selling points Amtrak has for passenger rail travel is that you can largely make of it what you want it to be but when it’s a sold out train and you have only one place to sit on board and nowhere else to go to pass the time, that makes a big difference. On the Empire Builder today there’s going to be several outlets for your boredom that you can walk around the train with and I think as you’ll see once we’re on the train and it’s moving and we can move freely about it, it makes for a considerably different experience.
[00:01:52] Steve: Now we have access to the lounge but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the great hall, especially when you and your planning will consider from just sitting in your living room that you could be sitting in here for any given amount of time waiting for your train, it’s not a bad place to do so. Now the Empire Builder and the Borealis both take the same route and they both use superliner equipment so that makes them the same train right? Well Borealis currently only has coaches and Empire Builder has a sightseer lounge, a dining car and sleeping car accommodations which I’ve been able to in the first occasion of successfully using the bid up system upgrade to today. It’s also the first day of the last five to six days in which the train has run at all due to cold weather across the country so today you would think that means a lot of people are waiting to take it back to wherever they came from or wherever they’re planning on going. No, that demand is pretty much cleared out.
[00:02:51] Steve: I don’t consider this to be the greatest lounge experience but it comes with the upgrade that we paid only $125 for on top of a $44 base fare that means that I saved many hundreds of dollars in using the bid up program to get this seat for eight hours which some would say that because it’s not overnight you don’t need a sleeping car you can’t really sleep in there. No but you do get the privacy you get the comfort you get the control over your surroundings there’s a lot to be said about that. We’ve got a little bit of time before boarding so let’s go grab some snacks in the metropolitan lounge.
[00:03:34] Steve: See we have a Borealis inbound at 7:21 today it used to be that getting the lounge meant priority boarding by cutting the line entirely and going right out to the track. No, now with the two line system they have now there’s even a waiting area for people in the sleeper car but I just like the sleeping car because it gives you the assurance that you’ve got a place that is your own but with the Empire Builder there have always been multiple classes of service it’s a history train it’s a train that expects some sort of level of elegance but really what it affords you is the capability to do the trip as you want it whether you’re in coach or first class. Now I’ve taken the Empire Builder in a sleeping car between Chicago and the Twin Cities on this arguably day trip many many times; the value in it for me is really obvious it’s just a nice pleasant ride that you don’t have to worry about you know: how many people are going to be on board, will it be difficult to get around, how long will the boarding line be, will people be disruptive, will they be nice? When you pay for the first class ticket you get that almost always in a very nice package. Now when it comes to the Borealis they used to offer two classes of service there was coach and business class but once the horizon cars and the Amfleet business class got changed to bi-level superliners the thought was that well it’s a superliner so that should be good it’s just one class of service but doesn’t have the capacity and as such it’s also been found to be kind of like a tin can always packed full with people because it’s a very popular train for its arrival and departure times. Oh, and it’s also to be said that this trip today is unique in that it is the last time I will be able to say I’m going to the Twin Cities as a destination. Why is that? I’ll tell you when we get there.
[00:05:47] Steve: I used to not go down here now you do and now you wait at the door.
[00:05:52] Announcer: And last but not least car 2730 if you are 2730 please line up at this time-
[00:05:59] Steve: under the bright new lighting from the recently installed drop ceiling we’re led by a gate agent to the through track but this time from the north side of Union Station’s basement. It appears that for this moment in history priority boarding once again means cutting the line of coach passengers contained in the glass encased waiting queue.
[00:06:21] Steve: This one all covered with snow that that’s ours.
[00:06:44] Steve: That’s the main difference between Borealis and Empire Builder: that Borealis is state sponsored and the state subsidy is not giving it a full crew like the Empire Builder. Today as we go through the train we’re also going to see where that crew makes a difference in the overall passenger experience on Empire Builder. Nice stacking! If we were staying through morning we could use that. I’ve seen those get full but not very often and fancier accommodations.
[00:07:21] Radio: That’s not changed for the CP orders, okay.
[00:07:26] Steve: at least one of our locomotives is number 344 but the way it’s entered into the computer it’s not the correct locomotive in sequence because the computer matters. You can have infinite privacy or as close to it as possible on Empire Builder.
[00:07:50] Radio: Train 7 departs 19 on it, clear. 7 train crew, have a safe trip. We thank you much!
[00:08:03] Steve: On time. First time in five or six days!
[00:08:11] Steve: EMD power.
[00:08:32] Steve: All right.
[00:08:39] Steve: 344, 312, and 319 today. Three of the newer Siemens ALC 42 locomotives on a train that will certainly see sub-zero temperatures going over several mountain ranges is a very optimistic way to lead our train out of downtown Chicago and into Metra territory. It’s rare for long distance trains to leave or maintain on time running in winter on what will eventually become mostly freight railroad owned by CPKC, but the past week’s lower temperatures and the previous day’s snow seem to greatly curtail the backlog of trains on this line this Monday.
[00:09:23] Steve: The diamonds! Steamy.
[00:09:33] Conductor: After exercise break will be at your ticketed destination or Winona, Minnesota, whichever comes first. Winona, Minnesota be 8:40 pm this evening.
[00:09:41] Conductor: The cafe bar is located near the center of the train. It is right below the observation cars, so there is a car where all the windows are floor to ceiling; in the middle of that car there’s some stairs, head down those stairs there you’ll find me. Down here’s a great selection of sweet treats, tasty snacks, cool beverages plus a delicious cup of coffee always made with love. Can’t forget those Bloodyyyyyy Mary’s! Along with those ice… cold… beer. So come on down, come see Will, come say hi, come for your heart’s desire. And as always enjoy the ride.
[00:10:45] Conductor: …my illustrious crew we are headed to Seattle in the diner. Folks, the dining car is established for full service sit-down meals and full service sit-down meals only. Breakfast and lunch will be first come first serve tomorrow and Wednesday dinner this evening will require a reservation for meals. Our sleeping car passengers meals are included in the price of their accommodations today the only thing that you would need to concern yourself with, folks, would be any adult beverages or gratuities you choose. For our coach passengers you will also have an opportunity to join us for meal structure if you would like. Your prices are predicated on a flat rate system for example dinner this evening for our coach passengers would be $45 per person to join us in the dining car for dinner. I’m gonna keep this real simple this afternoon folks: I myself am getting ready to head to the very rear of the train; I will begin this afternoon in the 2730 Portland-bound sleeping car. I will speak with anyone and everyone that would like to make a reservation for dinner. I will then carry on forward through the train to the 730 Seattle bound sleeping car. If and or should I have any seats remaining upon my completion of this great task I will extend the invitation to coach passengers should there be anyone interested in joining us for dinner this evening. So finally folks at this time if I may have you remain in your accommodations for the time being; I need at least one member of your party in that room with a door and curtain open so that I may find you and assess you the proper reservation. Thank everyone for your attention. Let’s get it!
[00:12:38] Conductor: I’m about to run alcohol aboard the train that alcohol must remain inside of your bag. We do sell alcohol located on the lower level the sightseeing observation car is the car with big windows ceiling to the floor halfway through that car downstairs downstairs in the observation car where they sell ice. cold. beer. Hamburgers and apple juice that ice cold and cookies. That’s lower level that sightseeing observation car.
[00:13:06] Steve: now out of Metra territory as we pass Rondout, Chicagoland and Illinois wane and the subtle zoning differences of Wisconsin allow warehouses and power generating infrastructure to fill in some of the rural spaces prior to our knocking down Sturtevant and Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport station stops that would be served by the Borealis and Hiawatha service Amtrak trains, it seems like easy blocking for our train to make its way out into the CPKC national network. This day saw northbound passenger rail trains from Amtrak and Metra returning to service mostly in whole but those bound for Texas and points west were either still canceled or incurring delays on earlier departures. No such worries for our train so far. Let’s hope this remains the case after Milwaukee when we make our way west toward the driftless region and Mississippi River bluffs to come further down the line as we enter the nightfall of wintertime.
[00:14:17] Passenger: No I I don’t know but I mean I can always give him a call-
[00:14:24] Conductor: Milwaukee, Wisconsin will be next in just a few moments. Remember you’re going to be about three that’s right hand side loading right hand side loading in Milwaukee.
[00:14:41] Steve: It seems like such a small detail the act of taking a walk through these rail cars. Slight enough a concept that Borealis seems to at a glance match but that train contains only other coach cars; no lounge to sit oneself in across two levels, no separate dining car. The result being a perpetual concentration of travelers in one seat for the whole seven hours from Chicago to the Twin Cities. And traveling by oneself ensures you get to try to make a friend out of your seatmate on the almost always sold out Borealis. But on the Empire Builder, you can have the time to walk about the longer train set and see the trip from a number of different perspectives across most hours of the long journey.
[00:15:26] Steve: There used to be a Megabus connection to Green Bay and Eau Claire and the Twin Cities from Milwaukee here sort of like an alternate way up that they sometimes put people onto but no more Megabus. But I saw it listed on the monitors at St Paul Union Depot, what am I to believe? It’s it’s Coach USA, right? Sure that’s why I go on their website and I can’t ever book it.
[00:15:52] Steve: Now that bus will take you up to Marquette, Michigan. That could be an interesting coach bus ride on its own.
[00:16:19] Steve: Just be able to stand up and look at the world going by and you can do this in various postures and positions and directions and it’s not just all seats. Something I’m doing today also for the first time other than taking a train that hasn’t run in six days time, I’m bringing home some frozen soup from starship restaurant. I could not get Megan’s gluten-free baking mixes at the start of this trip so this is the consolation prize. This is the completely perfect posture setting where you almost have the other seat down into a bed and the seat that I’m in is fully reclined. If you only have one person in the roomette, this is possible; otherwise it’s just like you share a closet.
[00:17:47] Steve: There’s a kind of soft beauty to the midwest in winter. How it goes from the red in the sky to the white on the land it’s just that contrast is what it’s all about. And these are the cleanest train windows I have seen all day. But the CTA was doing nothing to the train cars so I’m just a little partial today.
[00:18:15] Steve: If you ask me, Watertown should be the city with the Amtrak station but it’s Columbus somehow. This rural crossings in the middle of the night and you get to witness it lights and all. Watertown and we’re just past the junction where the additional train that would serve Madison and Eau Claire would spur off toward the former. I love the idea of that train for reasons that will become obvious soon but that area hasn’t had passenger service in more than 60 years.
[00:19:10] Steve: It’s like we’re right on that line of where it turns from light to dark.
[00:19:21] Steve: I think Amtrak instead of being desperate to sell these smaller you know less capacity rooms they could really go to a model where they use lie flat seating in a business class type configuration like you see on airlines. Problem with that is the same as the problem with this old train car is that accessibility standards have to be met designing one that allows for creature comfort, high capacity, and accessibility? Very hard to do within the confines of the specifications of one of these bi-level rail cars.
[00:20:18] Steve: And it’s all complete now, yeah. Ride Amtrak in first glass and see things like grain truck offloading areas.
[00:20:30] Steve: Oh, major setback in Columbus: they cannot find the step box.
[00:20:35] Radio: We don’t have one bring it out the station we’ll bring it back to well we won’t be bringing it back tomorrow though.
[00:20:42] Steve: Oh geez we’re three minutes early.
[00:20:44] Radio: We’re locked up when you get time. You want to pull west of this crossing? No no need now we’ll be all right.
[00:20:54] Steve: we don’t need to out of the crossing we can just continue to mess up traffic. I guess they found the step box. You’re sitting in coach and this happens and you get stir crazy you just pick up and walk to the lounge after everybody from Columbus has settled down and less confused. If you’re a sleeper we just walk back and look at some other stuff like a car I’ve never seen! That is the transition sleeper that is where the crew sleeps but they will also use bid up to sell those rooms or just sell them out of the normal catalog.
[00:21:41] Steve: The civility of it; and not. Climate control in the room tonight is great. I normally don’t set it all the way to warmer, but I did this time.
[00:21:51] Steve: the first dinner reservation was called but I’ve got a table an hour from now so I relocated to the sightseer lounge to remind myself of the backup offerings in the cafe as well as to watch everything lighted across the central Wisconsin countryside pass by the floor to ceiling windows. Though I saw one coach passenger on the way watching Korean TV news on a laptop (I don’t know how) but I’m the type that needs to get up and move around hourly on a train so having a secondary location with just a chair to haunt is a simple travel extravagance I really appreciate.
[00:22:27] Steve: Oh, the coaches going to eat in the dining cars and not making their way downstairs.
[00:22:47] Steve: Maybe we’ve walked to the very end of the train it’s ended with a sleeper car the one going to Portland but we’re also a sleeping car so it should be okay. Oh, it’s very full it’s very serious but we are among them. No it’s not good try. We made it as far as we can go without having to go a lot further by foot.
[00:23:39] Steve: The Empire Builder sends folks from Chicago back to their homes across the Midwest, but it also takes on a consistent handful of travelers from towns like Portage, Wisconsin and the surrounding villages to places out west where they can maintain connections of family, school, business, whatever. These folks stay with the Empire Builder for its connections to these cities free from cars by choice and traveling more simply when the chance is afforded. These station stops are never without business on my trips.
[00:24:08] Steve: I am like cannot order the steak, when am I going to next be able to order an Amtrak steak?
[00:24:15] Steve: The carpet is shockingly clean on this train. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such clean carpets on the Superliner. Bravo, Amtrak. The secret is just don’t use them for six days. Passengers passing through said something at the door “so it’s just like the escalator.” In what way is a train like an escalator?
[00:24:41] Steve: I can see Ripley’s from here. Such great memories of being here in cold this time of year. Because I’ve run out of things to say and put over the thing when we get over the river or so I think I’ll try it in wide angle maybe that’ll inspire me to say something. No, just looks smaller and darker.
[00:25:12] Steve: Moving pretty fast for 12 car train. We’re getting close to Toma and that’s a place that we’re going to see more of this year. You want to go to Toma? Better like and subscribe.
[00:25:27] Steve: time for dinner let’s go. It’s a fertile buffet; this would be a happening place pre-dinner they could make some money why don’t they? People cost money too.
[00:25:56] Steve: And last but not least in those features we talked about the Winona fresh air break. You’re still hanging on up there. Back by popular demand; the train that’s what we came here to do.
[00:26:23] Steve: I am so enthusiastic about the new method I learned about tipping on Amtrak with the credit card that I’m going to take a shower to celebrate. And it’s got the backup soap and the big towels! How am I the first one to be using this? It’s got the good soaps that you can get out they’re actually in there in the first place. Oh right unnaturally low demand due to weather that’s why it’s January. Okay classic shower recap uh to those that talk down the white marble uh it is actually Dove. How do I know that? Because I had to use it because this beekman is empty. And while I was cursing the name of beekman because it was empty I kind of pulled the uh shower curtain a bit and uh well the half penny wire hangers that your you know worst college landlord gives you they didn’t do so good but we got them back in shape so it’s fine. Otherwise the regular classic Amtrak shower so- this one you cannot see down to the tracks I will say that at least. I mean I’ve had worse middle seat partners on Sun Country than this. Doesn’t even apply here. And if you’re really the type that needs like extra spaces to be in, you could fold down the top bunk and then this would be more like a little encampment or fort. It’s like almost enough of a late period in the day that I could just bed down and rest; but I don’t on these trips I’m just gonna stare off into the night and look around the room and probably if anywhere fell in love with roommates on these trips that weren’t for sleeping reasons looking at motels from sleeping cars. There’s a reason they’re called super liners and they’ve lasted for all these decades because they’re full of magic. The detail that gets me is this section of padding it’s just like on this this thing but that’s an integral part of the room and the padding experience of the room after closer examination on the finishes of this Superliner 2 roomette though this is holding up a lot better than most I’ve seen so either this is the one that got the official OEM scraps when it needed to be reupholstered or it’s just held in there I can’t believe either way really.
[00:29:17] Steve: Amazing for this trip that we are having just the right amount of pacing to get us in on or better than scheduled.
[00:29:26] Conductor: Ladies and gentlemen we’re now arriving in Red Wing. Please head downstairs be prepared to exit the train this will be an extremely brief stop only those leaving and joining us are allowed on the platform.
[00:29:37] Steve: what we need to believe is that regardless of which train we’re taking we should appreciate what we have in the superliners because we don’t know what’s going to be the replacement equipment if there is any at all. Luckily you know when it’s based on good designs they tend to hold in there. But all the same it’s so much better when there’s space to spread out and the cars with space are at a premium and they are very much in need of money to keep running. Whereas view liner cars just get sent out missing panels like they did for me. This is around the same time frame and they clearly have received more love in the superliner maintenance area than viewliners do but they are quite different in that regard too, based off of very different ways of thinking about how to build passenger cars.
[00:30:38] Steve: when you’re this long of a train you can come into Red Wing fairly hot. They’re working all the cars from the back today. Now if we were running on time into Red Wing every rational person would expect us to be on time or early in the Twin Cities but let us not forget the freight yards. As I was talking about at dinner it’s gotten a lot more consistent since CPKC became the law of the this railroad that we’re on but you know all the railroads meet up in the Twin Cities and if they’ve got any sort of congestion you can wait some time so we don’t know until we’re there.
[00:31:29] Steve: well Amtrak clearly put something into these cars because you see this is not the original plate that’s a new one that they put on since that’s not the original light they want these superliners to be able to keep running even if it is as inefficiently as they would be in modern world with one outlet. See now, in a world where Northstar was still an operating thing this Hastings rail yard would also have Metro Transit commuter rail cars. By the way my feelings on Northstar that no one asked about: everyone got to be right in the end. People that were for it, the people that were against it. It was just never much of a system to start with. It could have been a lot more it should have been a lot more but it wasn’t and it wasn’t right to really keep it running in the state that it was in.
[00:32:21] Steve: Most of the things that I’ve enjoyed today have been because I’m in the roomette it was an uncommonly good value and there’s plenty of these trips I have not gotten to have this incredibly uncommon experience. I mean I’ve done it a lot but I still value it quite a bit. Taking coach is an experience on its own that still affords itself plenty of comfort versus say flying or having to constantly concentrate while you’re driving. Still the same reasons why you should take it on the Empire Builder and coach; you still have the ability to have the fine meal the only thing you can’t do is that ridiculous shower we just did. You still get a fresh air break, you still get the sightseer lounge. I mean salmon was good but it was not a stromboli. I’m not saying that for good or bad I’m just saying they’re two different foods you can buy on Amtrak.
[00:33:17] Steve: seems like they built a lot of higher density stuff next to potential transit in Hastings. I do like spending time in Hastings. One more time over the river before the St Paul destination sign. And once again we are on the BNSF line. We merged over with that line coming out of Prescott so we are coming back in through Cottage Grove. This has been the standard over almost the last year of the two routes the CPKC or BNSF. We are entering the yard south of the depot getting closer to being a real early arrival. That just does only happen like four times to me including this time. So now in the upper portion of the yard I would estimate we’re probably going to be about 20 minutes early into St Paul. There it’d be embedded in the seat. Soon to be on the platform. When will I be in another superliner 2 roomette? That is the question. I mean with all this extra time I could do anything when I get home. I think I’ll pet a cat. You can’t pick it up here but I can see Borealis in the storage track. So it did make it up here today as well. I appear to be overdressed so i guess we will be exiting the train soon.
[00:35:33] Steve: First off in St Paul, how did that happen? First train 7 in five or six days in St Paul. This is the last time I’ll be calling it my final destination though. What do I mean by that? See the thing is I’m about to change my long-term layover point aka I’m moving. So if I come to here toward the end of a trip there’s still be another connection. Now as to where that’s going to be I want to wait till I’ve got all my i’s dotted and t’s crossed and you know my my bed my baby and my cat are all moved into the new place but I can tell you is it is east of St Paul and I have to cross several major rivers to get to it. I just have to go up one more time that’s all. Will it be called up? It’s not letting me do the thing. This happened the first time I was ever here oh gosh. At least the door opened this time. True story on the grand opening before trains were coming here a bunch of people got stuck down here and I had to go up the escalator like I’ve got to do now to get everyone out. But unfortunately now I have to backpedal my grand escape on my last final destination trip here right of course that blunder.
[00:37:30] Steve: yeah that’s what we love about Amtrak a good lecture. That was a really good trip and if I had been in coach I would have just probably gotten up about the same amount gone to the lounge car, and once I had my fill just be back in my seat, staring out the window maybe dozing off that conversation was another great one for dinner so that as much as the food kept me going the shower was nice too (that I could only get in a sleeping car) but you know most of that that was the crew a lot of it how much they put into it and that’s the biggest difference I think the Empire Builder versus Borealis: bigger crew with better things for the guests. I mean passengers whatever. It took everything I could remember to not take the historic stair for this way this time. Elevator of prestige in shady alcove also tornado shelter and i also mindlessly pressed down. When I come to think about I didn’t remember that my van was in a lower level than me even though I know that’s where the garage is. It’s a bit cold outside is what I’m saying. Should have gone to Florida like I originally planned. The moral here you gotta bite while the iron’s hot or whatever they say. Well the fares are cheap this wasn’t that expensive though: $169 for a roomette nice. There’s another very snowy time in Chicago. What a greyhound ride hopefully this uh pain in my hips isn’t a result of that (it definitely is.) Anyway I’m gonna go try to sleep that off and have a day off tomorrow put this all into a video and we’ll uh see where I go from here right? It’s gonna open up a lot of options. Remember when I said Toma? Might pick up some trains from there. It’s uh somewhere off in that land. And I’ll be seeing you from there very soon.
[00:39:39] Steve: Seriously here I’m back and most days I’m just getting to my van at this time off the Empire Builder. Is it that the on-time performance gods have smiled on me for my decision to relocate? No. It’ll be late again someday. Unfortunately the next morning this train had to back up after Fargo and take a detour to Minot losing several hours in the process due to some track obstruction. They were such a nice crew; why do things always happen to nice people? Anyway thanks for coming along with me.