St. Ignace and the Upper Peninsula have a new Bus Depot/Travel Center located on US-2, just east of the I-75 intersection on the North side of US-2 near the Mackinac Bridge.

An Indian Trails official said the company plans on using the new St. Ignace station starting Sept. 22 with dedication slated Sept. 28.

MARP Vice-chair Don Monteith said the Michigan Association of Rail Passengers will be represented at inaugural of service from the station and the dedication.

The new bus station is the northern terminus of Indian Trails‘ Amtrak/Thruway route that starts in Kalamazoo at the Transportation Center that is shared with Kalamazoo Transit buses, Amtrak train and Indian Trails’ Amtrak/Thruway route # 8364. The Amtrak Thruway service leaves Kalamazoo at 3 p.m. for Big Rapids, Cadillac, Traverse City, Boyne Falls, Petoskey, plus other intermediate stops, arriving at St. Ignace at 11:45 p.m. The southbound schedule # 8365 has a 8:30 a.m. departure from St. Ignace with an 5:20 p.m. arrival in Kalamazoo.

The new bus station is also the terminus of another Indian Trails bus route that runs from Lansing and Bay City along the shore of Lake Huron to St. Ignace.

Indian Trails also operates a connecting westbound motor coach to Escanaba, where it connects to another Indian Trails Amtrak/Thruway (# 8539) motor coach to to Marquette, L’Anse, Houghton and Hancock with intermediate stops. Indian Trails extends service to Calumet but it is not part of the Thruway service.

South from Escanaba, Indian Trails operates another Amtrak/Thruway service (# 8532) that stops at Marinette, Green Bay, Manitowoc, and intermediate points. ending at the Milwaukee Amtrak Intermodal Station at 7:45 a.m., connecting to Amtrak’s 8 a.m. Hiawatha train to Chicago. With a layover, passengers can connect to Amtrak’s Empire Builder to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Spokane, Seattle and Portland. In Chicago, U.P. residents can connect to the entire Amtrak network

There is also reported interest to connect at St. Ignace to Sault St. Marie, the third largest city in the U.P., but which has no scheduled transportation service.