The Travels with Kev Weekly Newsletter

Hello Reader,

Amtrak officially shows off the new Airo trains this month!

Going Between The Skies & Chicago Union Station

I know some of you didn't come here for airplane talk. Fair enough. But at heart, I'm an intermodal traveler, and sometimes you need to fly to make a train trip possible. Last year, I flew from Chicago to LA just to board a train for a cross-country journey.

Whether you're coming from overseas or from within the U.S., Chicago is often your entry point into the Amtrak network. Because it's a hub for so many routes, knowing how to get from the airport to Union Station is genuinely useful. If you need the reverse directions for getting to the airport from Union Station, I've got you covered in this guide on my site. Here are your four airport options.

As always, there are taxis and ride shares, but walking is not an option.

Chicago Midway

Follow the signs to the Orange Line. It's a bit of a walk through the terminal. Once you're downtown, get off at Quincy Station. From there, head west past the Willis Tower (yes, some of us still call it the Sears Tower), cross the bridge over the Chicago River, and you'll see the entrance to Union Station.

Chicago O'Hare

You have two options here, depending on when you're traveling.

Metra is worth considering if your timing works. It's a short walk from the O'Hare Transportation Center to the Metra station. Keep in mind that it runs on a commuter schedule, so check the timetable before you rely on it.

The CTA Blue Line is your around-the-clock option. It runs 24 hours a day, takes about 45 minutes to reach downtown, and from there it's a short walk to Union Station. Whether you're arriving late or catching an early departure, the Blue Line has you covered.

If, for some reason, you want to connect from O'Hare to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, there is a bus line that can get you there.

Milwaukee Mitchell Airport (MKE)

Milwaukee is often called Chicago's third airport, and it has a real advantage: Amtrak stops there. When booking, use station code MKA, the airport rail station, separate from MKE's downtown Milwaukee stop.

Both the Hiawatha and the Borealis serve MKA and run directly to Chicago Union Station. It's a genuinely underrated option if you can find a good fare to Milwaukee.

If you want to catch the Empire Builder, you can either take Amtrak from MKA to MKE, use Milwaukee County Transit, or the bus line mentioned above.

South Bend Airport

This one surprises people. The South Shore Line runs from the South Bend Airport directly to Millennium Station in downtown Chicago. The airport is the line's final stop, so you can't miss it.

From Millennium Station, Union Station is about a mile away, reachable on foot if you're traveling light, by rideshare, or via the CTA. It's not as fast as flying into Chicago, but if the fares or your routing work out, it's a legitimate option worth knowing about.

A Rare Bump in the Road for the City of New Orleans

On Sunday, February 22nd, Amtrak's southbound City of New Orleans (train #59) made news for an unusual reason when a Canadian National freight train collided with the stopped passenger train near Memphis at low speed. Of the 128 passengers, only three reported injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched investigators to the scene, a standard procedure whenever a passenger train is involved in a collision.

To put this in perspective: actual collisions involving the City of New Orleans are rare. The last significant collision on record was in 1999 — over 25 years ago. The NTSB's involvement isn't cause for alarm; it's how the federal government ensures accountability and learns from incidents like this.

As of now, I have not heard whether it was a dispatch error, a faulty trackside signal, or an onboard error.

What we do know is that the train had already been running more than three hours late before the collision, pushing the final arrival in New Orleans to nearly eight hours behind schedule. That said, one bad day shouldn't define the route.

The City of New Orleans has been running well lately, posting a 78.6% on-time rate in November 2025, with an average delay of just 44 minutes, a solid improvement over its 12-month average. CN, lately, has historically given the CONO better track priority than many freight railroads give Amtrak, and that generally shows in the numbers.

I'll share more details as the NTSB investigation unfolds.

What is Kev Up To?

A family situation is sending me to Florida for a few days next week. My mom and I had planned an April trip so she could stay with my sister and the kids while my brother-in-law was away for work. But his schedule changed, and suddenly we had a very short window to make it happen.

With Holy Week commitments and a silent film on the calendar, I'm pretty protective of my time right now. But we made it work. And yes, I managed to squeeze in a few train rides. We will take Metra to O'Hare, and when I come home, I am taking the Blue Line to downtown Chicago and then Amtrak from Chicago to Sturtevant. A train ride is a train ride.

Until Next Week!

Safe travels & Happy Planning,
Kev Monteith

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