Councilman 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.
24.3 million dollars for 3.2 million travelers is only $7.59 per traveler. Would even a slight fare increase run off that many travelers? At least the state could save some money that it doesn’t have. Don’t get me wrong though – I want Amtrak service, but not at the expense of higher state and federal taxes. It needs to be self-sufficient. Some of the fares do seem ridiculously low.
Amtrak is never going to be self-sufficient, just like the interstate highway system and the airline industry are never going to be self-sufficient. They all receive federal and state subsidies. In fact, highways and airlines receive many times more money than train travel. In FY2006, the federal government enacted the following subsidies:
Aviation: $14,310,000,000
Highways: $39,060,000,000
Federal Railroad Administration: $1,503,000,000
As you can see, highways get 26 times as much money as railroads, and airlines get about 9 times as much. I don’t think it’s fair to cut rail subsidies any further. If anything, they should be raised.
Chris,
Hello! Hey, what do I know but I was struck with your comparison. Yes highways and airlines get more money. But I am wondering if you compared how many miles of highway there are compared to rail, that might explain some of the difference. Also, obviously, the number of people using roads is much much greater. I would guess 26 times probably isn’t that far off using either comparison.
Similarly, I wonder how many people travel using airlines verses railroad. I have to believe that it would be at least 9 times as much.
I am not arguing for cutting subsidies, it just stuck me that on the face of things those seem like large differences but there might be another way to see it. I looked up a couple of numbers…
HIGHWAYS vs RAILROAD….60 times greater
Rural and intercity interstates provide a large measure of mobility, representing nearly 24 percent of all surface rural and intercity transportation — 60 times that of passenger rail (Amtrak).
(1996 40 Years of the US Interstate Highway System: An Analysis The Best Investment A Nation Ever Made – http://www.publicpurpose.com/freeway1.htm)
AIRLINES vs RAILROAD…25.89 times greater
US Airlines 652 million 2005 (657 projected for 2006)….that is 1,786,301 per day.
(from Bureau of Transportation Statistics at bts.gov under Data and Statistics)
Amtrack…Average 69,000 passengers ride up to 300 Amtrak trains per day. (this is Amtrak’s own number)
CD– Yes, thank you for the numbers. My point was that no transportation system is self-sufficient. To single out rail transportation and say it alone among all public transportation options needs to be self-sufficient (as the Bush administration does) is ridiculous. They have just as much right to federal subsidies as the airlines or the interstates. In light of our need to cut our dependence on foreign oil, a new initiative to increase train travel instead of car travel would be a worthy project.
What was the reason for ridership dipping so much in the Peoria area that it ended up getting cancelled? I wasn’t around her back then and it would have been nice to have a train access when I went to college in Peoria.
Bradley should make a major push for Amtrak in Peoria. Think of all the students who do not have cars and how train service could help Bradley cast a wider net to reach those kids.