Thursday, June 3, 2010

Bentley Amtrak Itinerary?

Did Beth Bentley catch an Amtrak train in Centralia on Sunday, May 23rd?

The Illini Route northbound train leaves Centralia at 6:08PM and arrives in Chicago at 10:45PM at Union Station. Union Station is located at 225 South Canal Street.

The next Metra train on the Northwest line departs from Ogilvie Transportation Center at 11:30PM, arriving and terminating in Crystal Lake at 12:55AM. The last train on the Northwest line leaves Ogilvie at 12:30AM and arrives in Woodstock at 2:01AM.

Ogilve Transportation Center, located at Madison and Canal Streets, is only steps from Union Station, or two blocks if you walk from Adams up Canal Street to Madison Street. Whether you walk through the station late on a Sunday night, if you can, or hike up Canal Street, it's not a walk that most would want to make alone.

There are many areas to be thoroughly canvassed along the logical Sunday itinerary. If Beth got on the train in Centralia, did she take it all the way to Union Station? Did she complete the walk to Ogilvie Transportation Center? Which train did she take from the Loop? Did she get all the way to Crystal Lake? If she took the first train to Crystal Lake, did she get all the way to Crystal Lake and what did she do while waiting the hour for the train to Woodstock?

Big questions are why didn't she inform her family of her travel plans and ETA? Would someone not have gone to Crystal Lake to meet her at 12:55AM?

Somebody, somewhere, saw her. What do the Amtrak conductors on the 6:08PM train have to say about the passengers who boarded in Centralia? Did they observe her on the platform?

And what does the Metra conductor on either late Sunday night train have to say?

2 comments:

FatParalegal said...

Did the Amtrak train arrive in Chicago on time? Because every time I have taken Amtrak (from downstate, from New York, from Boston), there has been significant delays.

Gus said...

Good question. I took an Amtrak daytime train from Minneapolis to Chicago in January 2009 and it was two hours late.