Amtrak Borealis Debut! EB Borealis Inaugural Run and CP 8781 leads 149 at Portage, WI CPKC Tomah Sub

Taken on 5/21/24
Today is a very special day as it is the debut of a new Amtrak service the Borealis! This new Amtrak service runs from Chicago, IL to St Paul, MN and back as it will take the CPKC C&M, Watertown, Tomah, and River Subdivisions. They have been planning on this for years and each state has approved for this new service to run. We will be catching the first eastbound inaugural run of the borealis. The westbound runs a lot earlier so it passed me when I was in school. The new symbols for these trains are 1333 and 1340. 1333 is the westbound and 1340 is the eastbound. While waiting for 1340 we saw 149 sided waiting for 1340 and what was leading was CP 8781 St. John Express Hapag Lloyd unit. I haven't seen it since around September and October so I was happy to see It again. Eventually 1340 came and what was leading is AMTK 174 in the new Phase VII scheme. This was my first time catching a P42DC in the new phase VII scheme which was nice and 174 had a great sounding hybrid K5LA. After 1340 passed 149 was cleared and it opened up as we got to see CP 8781 lead for the second time. I do really enjoying seeing the CP orange units and I hope to see it again sometime!
Train 1: AMTK 174 P42DC Amtrak #1340 Eastbound Borealis
Train 2: CP 8781 ES44AC KCS 4686 ES44AC CPKC 149 Westbound Intermodal 147 cars