Michigan Services

Detroit lost its direct connections to St Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo and the Canadian province of Ontario.

[5] In mid-May Amtrak announced a Toledo, Ohio—Detroit connection to the new Chicago—New York Lake Shore with financial support from the state of Michigan; this train was canceled before it ran because of poor track conditions between the two cities.

Amtrak dropped the individual train names and rebranded all three Turboliner, in common with similar services to St. Louis, Missouri and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Although fast (and flashy), they were unable to reach their design speed of 125 mph (201 km/h) because of the poor quality of the Penn Central track in Michigan.

Starting in March 1976 Amtrak began replacing some of the Turboliners with conventional equipment, including new Amfleet coaches.

[7]: 195–196, 202 Amtrak restored service to the Grand Trunk Western northeast of Battle Creek on September 15, 1974, with the inauguration of the Blue Water.

Amtrak and Michigan agreed to truncate service at Port Huron and bring back the old Blue Water.

[7]: 199–200 [9] Amtrak considered two routes for a Chicago—Grand Rapids train: the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (ex-Pere Marquette Railway), which ran along the Lake Michigan coastline and joined the main Chicago—Detroit line at Porter, Indiana; and a Conrail (ex-Pennsylvania Railroad) route via Kalamazoo.

Service began August 5, 1984, with stops at Grand Rapids, Holland, Bangor, St. Joseph, New Buffalo and Hammond-Whiting.

[7]: 209 [10] Like the Blue Water, the Pere Marquette receives financial support from the state of Michigan.

[11] A 97-mile (156 km) stretch along the route of Blue Water and Wolverine from Porter, Indiana to Kalamazoo, Michigan is the longest segment of track owned by Amtrak outside of the Northeast Corridor.