Amtrak Pere Marquette to Grand Rapids - Apparently a Trip Report
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- Опубликовано: 21 ноя 2023
- I wonder how many more views this video would get if it got straight to the point...but that would be no fun, would it?
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I need more Nathan in my life.
I now look forward to Miles saying "all American hotel rooms look the same nowadays anyway" whenever I know the trip involves an overnight.
and then he walks in and the room looks noticeably different than a standard hotel room with the beds in the corner...
Nope frankly some hotels ARE worth your while like mission inn in riverside california about an hour away from LA and the Stanley in Estes park Colorado is awesome. Biltmore in coral gables Miami is stunning. Read house in Chattanooga Tennessee is awesome a retro style hotel
Most of the time I won't be staying in fancy places like that...
Many hotels in Grand rapids are super fancy as we have many big companies such as Amway which boasts the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel
Get a girl that looks at you the way Nathan looks at Miles
Miles does have a girlfriend, a cute nerd with some personality. A good match for him.
match made in transit
He hasn't blinked in years
Eh. What if I want a guy that looks me the way Nathan looks at Miles?
@@NickCBax To each their own.
If you sold Miles in Transit merch, I'd totally considering buying some.
What types of designs would you want to see?
I'd buy a T-shirt with "The Face" on it. @@MilesinTransit
Poor bid shirt
The guy in the white button-down at 0:58 honestly looks like George Santos. I like how you posted that comment at 4:50 under a Tom Scott comments section 💀. The Parisian-style entrance at Van Buren is more than just inspired! As Chicago is a sister city of Paris, the entrance was given to Chicago as a gift by the city of Paris in 2001! The Parisian transit authority, the RATP, created this reproduction from Guimard’s original molds. They also created reproductions for two of Paris’s other sister cities, Lisbon and Mexico City. The National Gallery of Art in DC has a Guimard entrance in its sculpture garden, first shown at the gallery in a 2000-2001 exhibition on Art Nouveau and permanently installed in the garden in 2003.
Square-Victoria-OACI station on the Montreal Metro in Canada has a genuine Guimard entrance made from parts of demolished Paris entrances (with map holder and "Métropolitain" sign and holder reproduced from the original molds). It was installed in 1967. During restoration in the early 2000s, it was found to have the last examples of the original glass light globes, which in Paris had been replaced with plastic for safety; one was returned to the RATP and the other placed on display in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Too skinny be ole George
kim jong un never fails with the facts
Kim Jong Un!?
The land where Grand Rapids is situated today is the ancestral land of the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi/Bodéwadmi people, also known as the Council of Three Fires. French-Canadian Joseph La Framboise and his wife Magdalene, who was of mixed Ottawa and French descent, established the first fur-trading post here in 1806. In 1821, leaders of the Council of Three Fires signed the Treaty of Chicago, which ceded much of the land of present-day West Michigan to the US government. Louis Campau, originally from Detroit, built a trading post, blacksmith shop and cabin there in 1826. Grand Rapids became a village in 1838 and a city in 1850. They became a lumbering center, producing lots of furniture, now known as the Furniture City!
Agreed, Miles, I too love just a basic Stromboli! Fun fact, it's named after an active volcano off the northern coast of Sicily! There are four active volcanoes in Italy, with Vesuvius and Etna of course being the most famous! But the fourth volcano is Vulcano, also located just north of Sicily, and Vulcano is the island where the word volcano actually comes from! The island derives its name from the Roman belief that the tiny island was the chimney of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
The DASH bus used to run more linear routes, but they consolidated it into one big loop last year (and cut Monday/Tuesday service). Now it usually ends up being faster to just walk
also, that less expensive hotel at the end is owned by the Devos/VanAndels, so you're probably better off giving your money to Hilton anyway...
Oddly enough the amway grand which is the hotel they stayed in is part of the Hilton hotel system. It was founded by the devos family for when one of the devos kids had a wedding back in the 80's I believe.
Thanks for showing the last manual elevator in Chicago! These are set to be replaced soon unfortunately. I also appreciate the elevator content in general :D
Oh no! I loved those elevators!
We love to see michigan transit being represented!
More Nathan in the near future please!
More to come! We filmed other videos on this trip.
Pere Marquette comes from the Pere Marquette Railway, in turn named after Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement which was Sault Sainte Marie (Sault is pronounced Soo)! Père is French for 'father', in this case priest. On the topic of hotel experience, the worst I've had was hands down the Frontier in Las Vegas, I went when I was five because my dad was a Manhattan attorney and he was sent there for work. We stayed the year before it was demolished and well...it showed its age. I think the best hotel atmosphere I've enjoyed was Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge which replicated a savanna with wildlife, huge African art collection, and there's even chandeliers made of Maasai shields!
But you know you're in a car-centric area when you see a crossing with those flags...smh. It's the same energy as the beg buttons that tell you to "WAIT". They consistently break ADA guidelines! It's inherently car-centric design when the pedestrian should have the right of way instead of forcing them to press a button. I mean, do drivers have to pull up to an intersection, and lean out of their window to push a button in order to get a green light in their favor? No, they just wait and the light appears! The beg buttons simply exist so that car traffic signals can minimize the car travel “delays” associated with people who need to cross a street on foot. They effectively penalize you for not having a car, and I've seen these in NYC too
Most beg buttons don’t actually do anything, they just give the illusion of control
Well they are good for people with visual impairments… except when they break and the “wait” is barely audible.
I remember visiting Nevada and reading about how the law has CARS get right of way, so if you get run over crossing against a light, you get fined. Considering the size of some roads there, it’s probably better to wait.
In Finland some of the pedestrian crossings at traffic lights seem to switch between two modes. A manual mode where you have to press the "beg button" to walk across and an automatic mode where it behaves as if somebody pressed the button immediately when the cars got a green light. I am not sure if this is based on the time of day or it is counting how often people are pressing the beg button and thinks "if it's that busy then pedestrians may as well get a chance to cross on every cycle of the traffic lights".
The Frontier had $1.99 steak and eggs that was excellent, so there was that.
Additional perk: The Grand Rapids Amtrak station is conveniently close to Founders Brewing
so I"m trying to figure out why I enjoy these videos, and I can't. There's just something entertaining about watching some really enthusiastic transit nerds fight their way through the confusing and confounding American public transport system. So fun, and yet so unexplainable
Thank you so much!
Amtrak customer service gives that wonderful Bureau of Motor Vehicles vibe!
I love Amtrak customer service. It’s unscripted, real and unique. It’s definitely unconventional.
@@toddinde Most people who have taken Amtrak don't share your view. It will have to change, if Amtrak wants sustained growth in ridership. Maybe Brightline can teach them a think or two.
That’s extremely unscientific “most people” when Amtrak’s own surveys show great satisfaction with customer service and the indisputable fact of growing ridership. I’ve been a frequent passenger my whole life and find the customer service better than much of the customer service out there. Maybe Brightline can learn some things from Amtrak.
@@toddinde You're delusional.
As a GR native it’s nice seeing you there and appreciating all the neat things about the city. Hope you enjoyed your trip and u should definitely come back. Let us know I’m sure me n others could show u around
Love viewng your engaging trip report videos of interesting travels. You have such nice friends to be thankful for.
Thank you!
Welcome to my town! You were like a 1/4 mile from my house at the hotel! 😂
I love the way Nathan always seems like he's smirking. He's the perfect "second banana" for Miles on the (apparently) trip reports!
I just love the Guimard entrances of the Paris Métro so much. So cool that Chicago has a reproduction of one! Here's the story behind why they're that way: In the years leading up to the Exposition Universelle in 1900, Paris was busy building their Métro, but many Parisians were against building said Metro because they thought it would look industrial. In order to make the entrances look aesthetically pleasing, the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris, or Paris Metropolitan Railway Company, held a contest with 21 participants but chose none of them and instead commissioned Hector Guimard to design entryways that were as elegant as possible.
Guimard opted to craft his entrances out of cast-iron set in concrete and painted a shade of green evocative of oxidized brass. The use of cast iron allowed him to construct the curved forms characteristic of his style, and concrete enabled him to incorporate sculpted details throughout each design, whether rendered as a roofed édicule structure or an open entourage model. In the years following their installation, Guimard's entryways were met with mixed reviews, and many were removed. However of course, the ones that remained were later realized for the Parisian icons that they are!
little late to this one, happy thanksgiving!! I love grand rapids and love a nathan feature as always
You as well, thank you!
MILES IN TRANSIT IN GRAND RAPIDS?!?!?! Nice!
Edit: The DASH system is a downtown parking bus system to help people get parking further away from downtown, then work their way downtown, and its free!
GR also has the Rapid system which runs buses all over town and has fares, there is also the Silver Line, part of the Rapid system, whch fancy stops and bus lanes.
If you think the Pere Marquette consist is weird now, it used to be even weirder: 3 Superliners and an F40PH that was emptied out and turned into a baggage car.
I knew about the Superliners but not the cabbage car! Like the ones on the Downeaster?
Ayee welcome to GR i would've loved to have met you! Im glad you had a good time especially at the Amway
Hey! You reviewed my commuter train! I do the Bangor to Chicago section every other week.
Having lived in Boston and commuted to NYC via Acela, I can say that Pere Marquette might have a worse schedule, but it has the nicest Amtrak staff I’ve ever met.
Wonderful video. Evoked nice memories of heading home eastbound out of Chicago Union Station as night falls... Pere Marquette goes through an interesting part of MI, the lakeshore vacation area passing into the fruit growing areas further inland. I once spent an afternoon in Bangor, it was an unusually interesting and diverse small town, with an Amtrak station! Hope you enjoyed GR, it's improved a lot since the 90s (true of MI Amtrak service also). But how on earth can the free bus seats be more comfortable than Amtrak's?!
They were cushier!
We need a Miles in Transit greatest hits album. The apparently a trip report theme song is such a banger
All the Miles in Transit is on my Patreon! But we've been talking about doing an album someday.
Welcome back Nathan.
When I lived in Chicago, I used to go to the Fine Arts Building and ride that elevator to go to a luthier for insturment repairs. I always felt like I was in a noir film
Speaking of the Pere Marquette Railway, the former railway's Pere Marquette 1225 locomotive served as the basis for the Polar Express! Warner Bros received copies of the blueprints for it in 2002. The train's whistle however does not come from that locomotive, but rather the Sierra No. 3, the train seen in Back to the Future Part III! Both of these movies were directed by Robert Zemeckis. The 1985 book was written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, who grew up in Grand Rapids, and as a child attended every home football game at Michigan State, next to which this engine was on static display! He played on the engine many times as a child!
Appropriately enough, the locomotive's road number is 1225...12/25, Christmas Day! This locomotive was NOT picked because of its number, but rather it was the last engine on the line at New Hudson, waiting to be scrapped. It was simply the easiest one to get out.
great video! nice to see quirky nathan in a trip report video! :)
4:38 As a native Michigander (admittedly from the other side of the state), until recently I pronounced Dowagiac “doe wha gee ack” - but about a year ago, I found out locals say “doe wah jack”
I always wondered how that's pronounced lol.
As far as scenery goes, you picked the season and the wrong side. If you get it timed right, you can watch sunset over Lake Michigan. But, for the most part, its just transportation, not an attraction in itself.
Also, Amrrak painted themselves into a corner with that tiny GR station. They need expand service badly. Every weekend trip is always sold out. Also, add a "reverse commute" schedule so the GR and Holland college students can travel to Chicago after classes.
It's not just students, but anyone in general. We've got friends in GR, and this schedule forces you into two nights there no matter what, complete with the super-late arrival on the first night, which EVERYONE loves.
@@KSRailfan the schedule is bad indeed. Even if they flip the train to run twice a day it would be really great.
@@vxla Ohhhh, we can all dream!
Two of my favorite things in this video, good 'ol Nathan (Tracks are for trains, ...) and the Trip Report jingle. Every sandwich is better on a pretzel bun. Always choose the pretzel bun option. Why go to Grand Rapids, MI? Thanks for sharing!
We were originally going to go to Port Huron and take a taxi to Sarnia to do VIA to Toronto, but it got replaced by buses so this was a last minute modification to that trip!
Always love having Nathan along with you in a video! Another fun adventure. 10/10!
Thank you!
Wish you woulda showed part of the return trip during daylight hours.
Also thanks for showing love to the DASH! I used to take them to work everyday from the west side of the city to downtown.
We didn't return, we went back...a different way that will be revealed at some point
Oh damn it’s the Miles in Transit Park!
damn can't believe miles in transit was in my hometown. Evanston is fairly out of the way, at least for tourists in the loop. Cool you were here!
Evanston was great!
Evanston was great!
Evanston was great!
10:38 At St. Joseph the restaurant you’re looking at is Silver Beach Pizza, which is one of the best pizza places I’ve ever been to. When I would take this train from Chicago to Michigan with my friends, we would call ahead and have a pizza waiting for pickup when we pulled into the station, it was fantastic.
Glad to get that important safety tip. I learned something. Now I need somewhere to play Scrabble since the local train tracks are "NOT FOR PLAYING GAMES".
never a miles in transit trip report without a pretzel 🥨
Pretzel really really cried out for yellow mustard.
Enjoyed the video. Would love to see you take the Amtrak trip from New York to New Orleans before Mardi Gras. it would make such great content.
Post comment edit: Also thought I should note that those lower prices on Google you saw at the end of the video are misleading. It's often times from scam sites that have terrible reviews and the hotels often won't take your reservation if you book it. It works sometimes, but you have to be careful.
That's true, I only ever book directly from the hotel. I'm not sure what those rates looked like that night.
The Hotel looks like the Hilton collection in Portland Or. Looks a nice downtown, maybe worth a visit.
Hope you checked out some Grand Rapids breweries! Great beer city
Someone’s surely corrected the pronunciation in the comments, but Pere Marquette is pronounced like the word “pier”, or at least that’s how us locals pronounce the Pere Marquette River (north of Grand Rapids, empties into Pere Marquette Lake [and then Lake Michigan] in Ludington, MI)
Grand Rapids is a reverse-in station. It's a single track that dead-ends at the station. This changed in 2014 from the old station at Market & Wealthy Streets which blocked off other roads. You caught the Downtown Area Shuttle (DASH). The only other bus open late is the LL - Lake Line which serves (and is largely paid for) by Grand Valley State University. The DASH bus you caught has recently been changed to a single line (instead of two) and running in both directions.
If you ever want to come back to grand rapids, get ahold of me. I'd love to give you a tour and take you on some of the other notable bus lines in our area. :)
Shoot, the elevators are closing? My friend used to have an office in the building and I'd ride it all the time. One of the operators wasn't great at hitting the floor just right... and we'd do a tiny bit up (bounce, bounce), then a tiny bit down (bounce, bounce)... got me seasick every time! Bummed that they're leaving but I hope the old guys get a nice retirement!
Those elevators are getting automated (meaning no operators in the cars)...
Nothing could have possibly prepared me for that shot of the pretzel.
I see at 9:09 they have Rold Gold Pretzels, but I see you passed it up for the regional soft pretzel and the pretzel bun. But you could have ordered all three and made it a hat trick.
Here's hoping you can find your elusive S-tier train.
The Amtrak to my parents' runs once a day (Coast Starlight) and it's so frustrating. Even twice a day would make me take it so much more often.
The Christmas Movie “the Polar Express” and the novel it’s spun off of are originally based on the Pere Marquette 1225, which does holiday rides every year in southwest Michigan.
Whoa!
I grew up in Bangor, and the Pere Marquette is generally seen as a commuter train to/from Chicago for those on the west coast of Michigan. Michiganders plan day trips around Amtrak to the city, the service times reflect that. Speaking of Elevators, across the tracks from the station (to the right of the mural) is the Bangor Elevator, a grain elevator on the National Register of Historic Places. To the left of the mural is the Freestone Pickles factory. The downtown live cam has a decent Foamer crowd that watches the Pere Marquette every day.
The Pretzel must've been so old that the salt completely dissolved.
I think I saw those crossing flags somewhere in the Twin Cities? I bet they're a bonus in a blizzard
Aw man! I took the Cardinal out of Chicago on 10/21. I just missed you guys. I never found out what they were doing in the grand hall. A gameshow? A concert? A gameshow about concerts?
It was an exhibit for Hermes
@@Mo-fy1zb Nice. Thanks for the insder info.
I'm just totally in love with the flags on a crossing pedestrian equilibrium challenge - they need to make it even more fun by forcing you to carry a chicken, a fox and an alligator too (but only in the right order).
EXACTLY!!!
The Fine Arts Building is my favorite and I appreciate you featuring it. Once again, you have the best friend(s) to have fun with. Love your trip reports!!!
Thanks!
@@MilesinTransit I also like when you carried the safety flags across the street in Evanston. My daughter lives there and was JuST telling me about doing that herself and then there you were!!!
I was gonna (politely) comment the pronunciation of Dowagiac, but Miles really beat me to the punch.
I've always wanted to ride this one
Oh boy evanston!
Come on up to Grand Rapids 😁
You should have explored evanston more, It's really a great place as suburbs go!
Noicee more Amtrak vids!
omg my grandparents live in st joe and i watched this from there :D silver beach pizza rocks so hard. highly recommend if you ever go up again. this is definitely a trip to take in the summer and not october, but i'm still glad you reviewed this line :]
The lights are probably running at 50hz at 6:21; there should be a camera setting for reduced flickering and/or 50hz/25hz capture
I feel like the Pere Marquette could see higher ridership if it was eastbound in the morning and westbound in the evening and marketed itself as a tourist train bringing chicagoans to the beach towns of southwest Michigan
I'm not sure that ridership would be higher with the schedule reversed. I sort of doubt it. What's needed is morning and afternoon trips from BOTH ends. Yes, two round trips a day. I know this is a somewhat radical idea but it has been done.
@@waynecopple385 oh yeah I’d always advocate for increasing frequency, if we don’t I’m afraid that the Pere Marquette will have the same fate as the Hoosier State
My dream is that they'll add an extra train extended through GR to Detroit. Leaves Detroit in the late morning, arrives GR in the afternoon, the Chicago in the evening and vice versa.
There just aren’t that many tourists. But they need more than one train a day to build serious ridership.
@toddinde Yeah. Tourists won't sustain it. Friday afternoon departs from MI would be popular with the GR and Holland college students. And basically anyone that isn't commuting or daytripping to Chicago.
10:00 you said the pretzel is "so moist thats its veiny" not the picture i needed in my head rn
I couldn’t imagine going to the van buren street metra and not going to the Eleven City Diner
Glad to see you both got to experience Michigan, again. 🙂 However, at 4:39... The 'I' in Dowagiac is silent. Aren't Native American names fun???
Last year I rode the Missouri River Runner for what turned into eleven hours--six planned, five not--and was startled how comfortable the seat in the new Venture coach stayed all that time. Was expecting severe rear-end soreness by journey's end and it never happened. So hey. JMO, YMMV, DSTM, etc...
That's good to hear!
I got a mid roll ad for Amtrak, on an Amtrak video. It’s like they know.
Salt Lake City has the street crossing flags too.
Wowza a French name for antrak (I'm probably wrong but who cares). Also happy Thanksgiving to you miles. Hope you have a good one with your family and friends 😁
You as well!
The flag bit was AWESOME!
19:27 Google tends to show pre-tax price, I bet you got the "complete price". Always find Google to be deceptively cheap with prices at times.
I payed more in base price too :(
@@MilesinTransit well that stinks!! But seemed like a fun trip!
Yeah the holding pens at Chicago Union Station suck... waited in one for 20 minuets because my train was late, everyone just kinda sat on the floor.
The second you had the "menu shot", it triggers PTSD from the trauma of watching your 3 hour video of the Boston area diners 🙂 I quickly checked te time stamp for the video to ensure it would be reasonable time :-)
Interesting to see a single Siemens car in a consist. Depending on the order (California, Midwest, VIA , Amtrak,) , some are in fixed consists of 2 cars, some are in 4 cars fixed consist etc. This shows that Amtrak Midwest has some single cars in its order. Amazing that a Horizon (aka commuter Comet) cars looks more luxurious than the Venture. I think the seats on the Washington metro are more comfortable than on those Venture cars on Amtral Midwest.
I have never been riding at business or Prived room cars because it was expensive to me. Leaving between Cincinnati, OH, and Philadelphia, PA. I just ride at the Coach car
I have a huge crush on Nathan
To be fair, google doesn't factor in hotel fees and taxes, and often uses shady sites for their price numbers; slightly over 200 for w room while listed at $180 sounds about right.
Great video!
I remember there was a Geoff Marshall video about a driver manually operated crossing gate (as in there isn’t an attendant to move the gates for you), on a line with Javelin high speed trains! That’s gotta be fun.
1:49 I had no idea Chicago had a Parisian Guimard metro entrance 😮 We have one in Montreal as well, at Victoria Square. The contrast of a giant statue of Queen Victoria next to a French art nouveau metro entrance is quite striking 🇬🇧🇫🇷
Also, there are quite a few things named after Père Marquette in and around Montreal - he must have been a prominent French clergyman back in olden times ⚜️
it’s van buren on the MED
The water fountain probably tasted weird because Grand Rapids has absurdly hard water. Tastes very different from Detroit water.
LETS GOOOOOOOOO
Nathan in the house. I missed him
9:09 once I Look at the Amtrak Cardinal Cafe Menu I Order the Breakfast Sandwich that has Sausage, Egg and Cheese which has Cast me $6.00 the Second time I order the Angus Burger and That Caust me $7.25
I don't mind the "recline" in the venture cars, the seats are fine but I wouldn't want to ride in one for longer than a few hours.
Nathan is adorable. Would love to see more of him.
Nathan is very good looking. I wonder if he might be gay?
We’re finally experiencing the pure Michigan experience
Omg it's apparently a trip report!!!!
As a Michigander, the title made me click. And the theme song was what made me subscribe
Thank you so much!
The cafe car is like a dinner on wheels (?)
the epic burger was a perfectly fine burger spot where i lived in river north, but they did start to close locations around the start of this year (at least one close to where i worked). quality decrease from cut operating costs?
miles they have the regular stromboli in florida
DO IT MILES
I've honestly got to say that I'm totally okay with the Venture coach's lack of recline capabilities on the NEC, but I would not want to do any sort of long-distance train on Venture - very glad they're doing a different swap for the Amfleet II cars. Don't know why Midwest swapped out for the "deluxe" stromboli - in quotes _definitely_ necessary.
A lot of my NEC trips are pretty long, though! Boston to Philly is, like, six hours...
@@MilesinTransit Fair complaint! I've never done more than a 4 on the NEC, so that's an oversight on my part - I'm just approaching it from the NY to Boston, NY to DC perspective. In the long-distance NEC case, it makes sense that you'd want an actual recline on a coach seat.
Why can't you have Horizon seats with the Venture bathroom?
Anyway the scuttlebutt is that the Horizon coaches are being stored for potential Ohio and additional Heartland Flyer service. RIP comfort on Amtrak Midwest, everyone hates the Venture coaches
18:50 And the room erupts into cacophonous cheers
The one time I see someone go to my backyard, I am out of town
Ancient Chicago Vertical Public Transit Trip Report
The train looks like a tube train on the underground, because of the tube look
Ancient Elevator Review!
Definitely a train. I would use going up there matter fact I did it once.
These new seats seriously don't even come close to the seats on the Amfleet II's - I am a little worried that they're going to replace the II's with these on routes like the cardinal and it'll be impossible to sleep in coach. Hopefully they end up sourcing a different variation of the Venture coaches for long distance routes.
Grand Rapids is nice.