While I was on hiatus, there was an interesting editorial in the Galesburg Register-Mail suggesting a Galesburg-Peoria commuter train. John Pulliam is their business writer at the Galesburg paper (the equivalent of the Journal Star’s Paul Gordon), and he makes some good points:
Ever since Maytag and Butler abandoned the Burg, many people have been paying big bucks to commute to Alcoa and John Deere in the Quad Cities and Caterpillar in Peoria. Driving that far every day is expensive, tiring and causes you to need a new car about twice a month. Why not take the train? (Because there isn’t one.) […]
Not only could a commuter line take Galesburg workers to Peoria, but Peoria’s nearest Amtrak service is Galesburg and Normal. Not good for a metro area of about 350,000 people. I know Peorians would rather have a direct route to Chicago, but the commuter train could bring them to Galesburg, where they could catch Amtrak to Chicago and many other destinations.
I agree. But why stop there? Let’s extend it on to Normal, or even Champaign. We need a good east-west train route in Illinois.
Pulliam suggests using the BNSF rail line between Galesburg and Peoria. I wonder how amenable BNSF would be to letting Amtrak use their line and how much it would cost to upgrade it to passenger rail standards. Maybe one of my rail-enthusiast friends can give me the low-down on whether any of this wishful thinking would really be feasible.
I just want to know, is any of this going to happen while I can still benefit from it? I can guarantee I will be living in peoria for about another 4 years. Beyond that, anything’s possible.
Seattle has been struggling with light rail for over 20 years. From what I’ve read, the Kellar Branch is a 15 year old battle.
I’m all for this idea, and various other rail ideas, but how long is it realistically going to take to establish such things? I really want to know. Not just harrassing anyone here…
BNSF’s Peoria – Galesburg line could accommodate rail passenger service and sees maybe one to five daily freight trains, some up to 8,000-ft in length. The track is good for 30mph most of the way, so without any upgrades, passenger trains could do about 49mph?
Unfortunately, the only viable Galesburg – Quad Cities route (BNSF’s Savannah, Il to Galesburg, IL line) has a “little” capacity issue in that it is single track but sees maybe 20 to 30 trains (or more) per day. Heavy merchandise, taconite and grain traffic leaves trains in passing sidings for hours, and congestion at Galesburg does not help either. The track is good for 59mph, however, which would allow 79mph passenger trains (Amtrak’s standard).
I doubt you’ll see this happen, unless the State of Illinois is, at a minimum, willing to give BNSF big bucks to double track their Savannah, IL to Galesurg, IL line. That line hasn’t seen rail passenger service since 1961; the last Peoria – Galesburg passenger trains ran in 1960.
Thanks, David. I knew you’d know the answer right off the top of your head! Your brain is a living railroad database. 🙂
I don’t think many Peoria area folks would take the train to Galesburg to go to Chicago. It be like going back two spaces to go ahead one space since Galesburg is further away from Chicago than Peoria. The best bet for Peoria-Chicago passenger trains would seem to be via IAIS-CSX-Metra, particularly after IAIS completes their track upgrade. Second best would be passenger service to the Normal AMTRAK station. I also doubt that many Peorians would use train service to the Quad-Cities. Ed Sanders
Ed’s correct…Metra service may someday (within the next decade) be extended out to Peru and of any potential Peoria – Chicago route for rail passenger service, the one used by the Peoria Rocket has the greatest on-line population density. Track upgrades would be necessary (Iowa Interstate plans to upgrade their Peoria Branch, part of which they own, but probably not more than 40mph and may only keep track speeds to 25 or 30mph as they are now on most sections of the line) but that only takes $$$$. If the taxpayers are willing, then it may happen.
“I don’t think many Peoria area folks would take the train to Galesburg to go to Chicago.”
I might. When I go I’m usually visiting my parents for several days, I find the drive boring, and I’d rather read or work on the way. If the timing wasn’t god-awful I might go Peoria-Galesburg-Chicago because I could read the whole way. But if I have to drive to Galesburg or Bloomington, that sorta defeats the purpose of taking the train.
In college South Bend -> Chicago -> Parental Units in the burbs took about an hour to an hour and a half longer by train than it did by car (two hour drive), but it was worth the longer time to be able to read and relax on the trains. It cost me $20 in train fares ($9.50 on the South Shore, $3.50 on the Metra), taxi (Randolph to Union if the weather was bad), and lunch at Union while waiting for the Metra. I thought that was extremely reasonable compared to gas and tolls. Seems like a lot of the Amtrack routes downstate cost a heckuva lot more than that.
But with the rising cost of gas and my drive being closer to 3 hours, I might go Peoria-> Galesburg-> Chicago depending on how long it took.
David, get this “big bucks” stuff out of your vocabulary. You need to think like the highway lobby. Since we NEED it, the cost is irrelevant, and, besides, it’s a mere pittance, compared to the next highway project.
Wasn’t a Peoria-BN commuter line studied around 2000 or so and found to be not feasible? I can’t imagine service between Galesburg and Peoria being any different.
The Mouse wrote: “David, get this “big bucks” stuff out of your vocabulary. You need to think like the highway lobby. Since we NEED it, the cost is irrelevant, and, besides, it’s a mere pittance, compared to the next highway project.”
Of course we NEED it, like there’s going to be more than 15-20 people on each trip that is easily driven in 45 minutes 🙂 I think rail passenger service is most feasible when you have a situation such as Chicago where you can drive on congested freeways in bumper-to-bumper traffic most days (and seemingly all day long) for two hours or more before even reaching the central city (not to mention downtown parking). Even though the drive from Peoria to Joliet might be uneventful and fast, once you get into the narly 10 million strong metropolitan area, the same advantages of commuter rail service kick in for that last leg of the journey.
There are few metro areas in the Midwest like Chicago that have that situation (Detroit is probably like that as well and also St. Louis) so some kind of Quad Cities – Galesburg – Peoria Amtrak route, even though it would serve as a connection to other trains at Galesburg, such as the California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandberg, doesn’t really seem feasible, especially when public assistance is involved (if a private firm would start it, fund it and operate it or contract with Amtrak to operate it, what’s to oppose?).
Storm72 wrote: “Wasn’t a Peoria-BN commuter line studied around 2000 or so and found to be not feasible? I can’t imagine service between Galesburg and Peoria being any different.”
I think you’re referring to a 1998-1999 study of Peoria – Bloomington-Normal commuter service using the Norfolk Southern line between the two cities.
Back in 1989, however, IDOT briefly considered a Champaign-Bloomington-Peoria-Galesburg cross-state route that involved Conrail, Norfolk Southern and Burlington Northern track.