The Pere Marquette: Grand Rapids' Daily Train to Chicago
Amtrak's Pere Marquette links Grand Rapids with Chicago's Union Station, with stops in Holland, Bangor and St. Joseph along the Lake Michigan shore. In a region built around the automobile, the daily train remains West Michigan's most civilized commute — and its most scenic one.
The train leaves from the Vernon J. Ehlers Station on Century Avenue, just south of downtown — a modern station named for the former Grand Rapids congressman — and runs southwest through Holland and along the lakeshore through Bangor and St. Joseph before turning the corner of Lake Michigan into Chicago. Amtrak's Pere Marquette makes the trip daily in each direction, and the state of Michigan helps fund the service, as it does Amtrak's other Michigan routes, the Wolverine and the Blue Water.
The Pere Marquette's passengers are a cross-section of West Michigan: business travelers who work through the trip instead of driving I-196 and the Indiana toll road, students, Chicago-bound families, and — this month — holiday travelers booking ahead for Thanksgiving week, historically one of Amtrak's busiest periods nationally. The Holland stop serves the lakeshore's college and resort towns; St. Joseph connects the southwest Michigan communities; and the whole route doubles as a rolling survey of the region's economy, from greenhouse country to the lakeshore bluffs.
The train's advocates in West Michigan have argued for years for a second daily round trip and faster, more reliable schedules — the route runs substantially on freight railroad track, which sets its practical limits — and state rail planning keeps the corridor on its long-term lists. For now, the service's virtues are the ones it has: one seat from downtown Grand Rapids to downtown Chicago, no toll-road traffic at the Indiana line, and a lakeshore sunset on the evening run home when the timing is right.
Practical notes: book holiday-week seats early, arrive at the Ehlers station with time to spare since boarding is brisk, and remember the train's luggage policies differ from the airlines' in your favor. Furniture City News will include Pere Marquette service advisories in our traffic coverage through the holiday season — the train is part of how this region moves, and November is when it earns its keep.
