Peoria’s Mayor Jim Ardis will be pressing for rail service to come back to Peoria when he meets with Dick Durbin at a meeting in Champaign, the Journal Star reports:
“I would definitely like to get on Sen. Durbin’s radar because he is very supportive of continued funding for Amtrak,” Ardis said. “Even though it hasn’t been here, we’re the largest metropolitan outside the city of Chicago. I think people would use it and it would help for economic development.”
[…]Still, Ardis said he hasn’t taken a serious look at the possibility and plans to discuss it with council to find out if others are on board after the meeting with Durbin.
So, for all of you other rail-enthusiasts who were wondering who to contact to express your interest in passenger train service returning to Peoria, there’s your answer: contact your city council representatives. It sounds like their interest is going to have an effect on how hard Ardis pushes for it.
There are some significant logistical hurdles to overcome. A common misconception people have about railroads is the belief that the tracks are just like interstates or highways — i.e., that any trains can travel on them whenever they want. But the truth is that railroad companies actually own their own rights-of-way, and any other company that wants to use it has to enter into an agreement and pay a fee to the company who owns it.
That’s right, unlike public roads and airports that are subsidized by the taxpayers, railroads are all privately owned and maintained. And Amtrak doesn’t own any track in Illinois. So for Amtrak to come to Peoria, one of the sticking points is determining what tracks it would/could actually run on. Once that’s determined and a deal is worked out with the owner of the tracks, most likely those tracks would have to be upgraded because Amtrak trains generally run at a higher speed (70+ mph) than freight trains. And that costs money; probably state money.
The bottom line is, there would have to be better ridership than there was back in the late 70’s when train service left Peoria, or the early 80’s when Amtrak left East Peoria. And, contrary to some comments I’ve seen, just running a train to Normal to connect with trains there isn’t going to cut it. We need a direct-to-Chicago route (in less time than it takes to drive) if we want to get significant ridership. One of the reasons ridership was down 20-30 years ago was because service got so bad and trains went so slowly due to deferred track maintenance.
I think Peoria would embrace fast, quality passenger train service to Chicago and St. Louis. I’m glad to hear that Ardis, Durbin, and other elected officials are interested.
Hell, I’d ride it 3 or 4 times a year (maybe more) just for fun.
It’s interesting when we talk about rail service, that all we hear are the “hurdles” and the cost, but when the politicians want a new highway, all we hear about are the alleged “benefits”. The double standard continues.
Mouse — I disagree with your premise. Consider the proposed “ring road” that some want to build. That’s a highway project that is regularly presented in terms of hurdles and costs. Questions abound about whether the project is necessary at all, which corridor would be best if it is deemed necessary, how farmers and other residents in affected areas will react, how much a new bridge over the river would cost, etc., etc. I think this project is — so far — getting the same treatment any transportation project would receive, regardless of the mode of travel.
Some other examples: Peoria-to-Chicago highway, Peotone airport proposal, Route 336 to Macomb…. None of these were presented solely in terms of the “benefits.”
IF it gets me to Chicago and St. Louis in even about the same amount of time as the drive, I say GO!
For those of you interested in musing the possibilities, here is a link to the official IDOT rail map for IL – includes all lines regardless of purpose. http://www.dot.state.il.us/officialrailmap.pdf It’s interesting for me, anyway.
And here’s the link for the current passenger routes Amtrak runs. http://www.dot.state.il.us/amtrakmap.html It looks like there are a couple of ways to go from here to one of the lines they already use, and be somewhat direct. I personally would like the idea of going up to Chili, through Streator and into Joliet, at which time it could jump on the line they have from Joliet to Chicago. It would offer service to folks in that void between the Galesburg and Bloomington areas. Just thoughts…
Amtrak, we don’t need it. If we keep getting all these public transportation routes congesting our city, I am moving. What next, bring Greyhound busses to the Peoria area? That would be the last straw for me. What exactly is wrong with driving? Peoria is not that big. The Citylink does not even stay busy. This is just amazing to see all of the people who support this outrageously stupid idea.
Maybe Goofy Ridge, Il should get a trainstation too. They need it as much as we do.
Hooligan, if you don’t need it, don’t ride it. Keep driving.
Your message is quite confusing. You can’t compare Amtrak to CityLink. CityLink is local public transportation, and Amtrak is for intercity travel. I can tell you that when I had to go to meetings in Chicago, it was far cheaper to take the train. It cost me $30 round trip to go between Bloomington and Chicago. It was $20/night just to park in Chicago if I had taken my car, and that’s not including the gas to get there and back nor the tolls on the tollway. For a three-day conference, I saved a good chunk of change. Plus, I could do other things on the way up and back (sleep, read, etc.) rather than worry about traffic.
I have to go now, but I can think of lots of other good reasons to have Amtrak in Peoria; maybe some other readers can fill Hooligan in.
I can see some benefit to Peoria regaining rail passenger service after 25 years (Yeah, I know, THE PRAIRIE MARKSMAN served East Peoria). It’s a matter of prestige and well-patronized intercity service puts the city on the map. If C. J. can save money taking the train to Chicago and back them many others can as well. It can work well if done correctly; two daily roundtrips, for instance, using the old PRAIRIE MARKSMAN route, most of which is still an Amtrak route, and also perhaps an East Peoria depot built across the tracks from ShopKo so its on a main road, West Washington St., served by CityLink, and with adequate parking. Cooperation from the Tazewell & Peoria RR (which controls the track behind ShopKo) would be necessary, which could complicate matters. Still, it could work.
C. J. wrote – “One of the reasons ridership was down 20-30 years ago was because service got so bad and trains went so slowly due to deferred track maintenance.”
Actually, bad PR from the Journal Star (twisting the facts and lying outright about some things, such as the depot “being in a railroad yard”), slow running on the TP&W (in good condition, but because their mainline was unsignaled, passenger trains were restricted to 59mph vs. the 79mph standard) and probably inadequate publicity.
So far Ardis’s tenure in mayors’ office has simply picked up where Ransburger left off. I was beginning to wonder if Mr. Triple-Chin was really voted out of office. A positive outcome with this train business would really look good on the Ardis resume. It would be cool if we could get travel time from Peo to Chicago down to an hour! Might look for high paying job there and live in the burbs here.
I respect that C.J.- The intercity uses could be valuable for people who travel for business to Chicago. I look at all issues through a mirror to see evaluate the cause/effects, and in my opinion I think that while it would be beneficial to some. It would cause major congestion if not routed correctly. So, I would say that if it is engineered correctly that would be great, and it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Yeah, no real point on Citylink, sorry. Honestly, I just hate busses and most public transportation. In Chicago, it is necessary, but think of all the future battles with the City Council about the railroads, it just sounds like a lose/lose situation.
Maybe the City Council is a lose/lose organization? Have they ever done the right thing? I mean really.