Category Archives: Amtrak

Amtrak, State of Illinois

Amtrak study upbeat about Chicago-Quad Cities route

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Before Amtrak can look at the feasibility of a Chicago-Peoria Amtrak route, they had to complete their study of a Chicago-Quad Cities corridor. That study was released this week, and it’s very encouraging. According to the Associated Press, it estimates the route would get 111,000 riders per year, cost between $14 and $23 million to upgrade the trackage, and $6 million annually to operate.

You can read Amtrak’s press release here. Included on that page is a link to the executive summary of the report.

My understanding is that the next feasibility study Amtrak and IDOT will be working on is the Chicago-Peoria study.

Amtrak, City of Peoria

Peoria Amtrak study delayed

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Amtrak LogoLate last year and early this year there was a lot of talk about IDOT and Amtrak doing a study on the feasibility of bringing passenger train service back to Peoria. At that time, it was estimated that the study would be completed by December 2007, or possibly early 2008 at the latest.

Yesterday, I e-mailed Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman George Weber to get an update on when that report would be available. He wrote, “The Peoria feasibility study will start sometime in early 2008. I don’t expect completion until Spring 2008.”

In a November e-mail to Mayor Ardis, he explained the reason the timeline had been pushed back. “Amtrak has been swamped with study requests since our success in the fall of 2006 and also has been busy responding to Federal legislative inquiries and requests for reports, hence the reason everything has been somewhat delayed.”

Peoria is in line to get its feasibility study after the Quad Cities study is completed. That study was due December 5, but has not yet been posted on the IDOT website.

Amtrak, General News

Parade Magazine talks about trains

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Parade Magazine had an excellent cover story on passenger train service in the U.S. They make the case for more federal funding for this more efficient transportation system and shows how far the U.S. is behind other countries. The new routes in Illinois and their tremendous increase in ridership are highlighted in the article.

The title says it all: “With high gas prices and airport delays, could we make our trains… A Better Way To Travel?”

Amtrak, City of Peoria

Amtrak breaking more records in Illinois

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Amtrak LogoAmtrak ridership is up — way up — in Illinois.

That should be a shot in the arm for efforts to bring Amtrak to Peoria. Amtrak and IDOT are still working on a feasibility study considering that possibility. The last update I heard said that the study should be completed by the end of 2007.

There are a couple of route possibilities I’ve heard bandied about. One would be an east-west train that would connect the Quad Cities, Galesburg, Peoria, Bloomington, and Champaign. The other would be a direct Peoria-Chicago connection. The latter would be my first choice, but the former has its advantages, too. (If they went with the former, I’d like to see it eventually extend all the way to Indianapolis, or even Columbus. Of course, that would take a commitment from Indiana and Ohio.)

Hopefully Congressman Ray LaHood won’t do anything to torpedo the idea before he leaves office.

Amtrak, City of Peoria, General News, New Urbanism, Ray LaHood

Morning briefing

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I’m too busy to do a lot of blogging today, but here are a few comments on the news of the day:

  • West Main Street needs to be narrowed from five lanes to three, the on-street parking restored, and sidewalks widened. That’s the only way to slow traffic on the street. The 30 mph speed limit is a joke — the street is built for speed and people are going to go the speed the road is designed to accommodate. There’s a meeting planned to discuss this issue on Tuesday, May 29, at 6:00 somewhere at Bradley University (exact location TBD).
  • I see the Journal Star caught up with WCBU today by reporting how Ray LaHood has been throwing cold water on the Peoria Amtrak plan. LaHood’s comments are devoid of logic. He thinks no one will take a train to Chicago from Peoria unless it can get there quicker than driving, but on the other hand he thinks people will take a bus to Normal or Galesburg and take a train to Chicago from one of those stations. Who’s whispering in LaHood’s ear to try to sabotage this effort? Auto makers? Oil companies?
  • Now that’s what I call a “happy meal.”
  • Whenever I try to go to WMBD radio’s website, it crashes my Firefox browser. However, it works in Internet Explorer. It’s really annoying.

Feel free to discuss anything else you want. This is an open thread.

Amtrak, City of Peoria, Ray LaHood

Ray LaHood pooh-poohs Peoria Amtrak plan

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Ray LaHoodThis morning as I listened to WCBU’s news broadcast, I was shocked to hear Ray LaHood say that Amtrak is never going to come to Peoria and we should be satisfied with bus service to Galesburg and/or Bloomington to connect with Amtrak there.

First of all, IDOT hasn’t even done a feasibility study on the proposed Amtrak route to Peoria yet. Why is LaHood prejudging the outcome of that study? There are a lot of people working on getting Amtrak back to Peoria because they believe it will be good for the economy, for college students, for tourism, and of course for transportation options for Peoria residents.

Secondly, this is the second time that LaHood has tried to sabotage local transportation plans. LaHood torpedoed attempts to build a Chicago-Peoria interstate highway, suggesting widening Route 29 instead. Now he’s trying to undermine the efforts of local officials to bring passenger train service back to Peoria.

LaHood has supported upgrading existing transportation facilities, such as I-74 and the airport terminal and runways, but he apparently doesn’t support adding more transportation options that could benefit Peoria. Why is LaHood holding Peoria back? Why does Ray think Peoria doesn’t deserve better?

Update: I talked to Jonathan Ahl tonight at the city council meeting and discovered that he had posted about this topic and I missed it. My apologies. You’ll want to read Jonathan’s take on it since he’s the one who interviewed LaHood.

Amtrak, City of Peoria

Ardis to continue pushing for Amtrak service

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Amtrak LogoI was happy to hear Ardis say this in his State of the City address today:

I will continue to pursue having IDOT urge AMTRAK to complete a feasibility study to bring passenger rail service back to Peoria. We are the second largest municipality outside Chicago and we deserve consideration. Senator Durbin spoke in support of our feasibility study just last week in the Quad Cities and Congressman LaHood supports the study as well.

I’m going to be taking the train to Minnesota next month, and it sure would be great if I didn’t have to drive to Normal to catch it.

Amtrak, City of Galesburg, City of Peoria

How about a Peoria-Quad Cities Amtrak route?

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Amtrak LogoWhile 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.

Amtrak, City Council, City of Peoria

Council Roundup: Mayor Ardis’s Amtrak meeting

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Amtrak LogoCouncilman Manning took the opportunity under New Business to thank Mayor Ardis and Councilman Jacob for attending the Amtrak meeting in Champaign on Tuesday afternoon. He was glad to see Peoria pushing for Amtrak service to be restored.

Ardis reported briefly on his meeting with Senator Durbin and Amtrak President Alex Kummant. He expressed to them the fact that Peoria is the largest MSA (metropolitan statistical area, includes the tri-county) in the state outside of Chicago, that we have Caterpillar World Headquarters here as well as Bradley University, and a whole list of other reasons why Peoria should be considered for passenger train service. He also mentioned that Rep. LaHood and Sen. Durbin both support Amtrak service for Peoria.

Ardis also reported that IDOT will be doing a feasibility study on the costs associated with getting Amtrak service in Peoria again. It sounds like we’re seriously going to pursue the possibility of restoring passenger train service here.

And why not? The state recently doubled its funding for Amtrak from $12.1 million per year to $24.3 million. Besides rail service to 30 Illinois communities for 3.2 million travelers annually, Amtrak also provides 1,800 jobs in Illinois, $88 million in wages, $69.7 million spent annually by Amtrak on state goods and services, and over $250 million invested in high-speed rail. Illinois has shown a great commitment to Amtrak. Ridership is up on all routes the past two years (e.g., ridership on the Chicago-St. Louis route increased by 13.7% in 2005 and 8.3% in 2006), and so they’ve added more trains to accommodate the higher volume.

It’s time for Peoria to be back on-line.

Amtrak, City of Peoria

Ardis is in on Amtrak meeting

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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.