MOLINE, Ill. — An exceptionally long-running effort to launch Amtrak service to the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa may be extended even longer, if some federal lawmakers have their way.
Three members of Illinois’ congressional delegation — U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen — have written Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, asking for an extension to federal grants to help launch Chicago-Quad Cities service that date to 2010.
KWQC-TV reports that the funding will expire on Dec. 31 without an extension. A primary stumbling block remains the lack of an agreement on route improvements between the Illinois Department of Transportation and Iowa Interstate, which would be the host railroad for the final 48 miles of the Chicago-Moline route. But the Our Quad Cities news site of a group of area TV stations reports that Sorensen says Iowa Interstate, for the first time, seems more willing to talk about those improvements.
(In an email to Trains News Wire earlier this year, Iowa Interstate CEO Joe Parsons wrote, “We do remain in contact with IDOT related to the proposed Quad Cities service. However, our agreement with IDOT prohibits us from discussing negotiations publicly.”)
The proposed service received some $177 million in federal stimulus money in 2011 for service that was projected to begin in 2014. The legislators’ letter says the project experienced “delays brought on by a previous Illinois governor” that led to a five-year extension of the federal grant in 2019, the same year current Gov. JB Pritzker helped secure $225 million in state funds.
The effort to launch Quad Cities service goes back even further. Amtrak completed a route study in 2007; Iowa studied an extension to Iowa City in 2008. Moline has had a completed multimodal transportation facility intended to accommodate train service since 2018. [See “Long Chicago-Quad Cities Amtrak service impasse illustrates hurdles for new routes: Analysis,” News Wire, April 29, 2024].
More recently, the Chicago-Quad Cities route was among those selected last year for the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development program, earning a $500,000 grant for a scoping study [see “Routes from Chicago join list of selections …,” News Wire, Dec. 7, 2024]. In their letter to Buttigieg, the three Illinois legislators say the FRA should “build upon [the] momentum} from that selection by granting another funding extension. “This timeline would allow the project to continue its recent progress and provide certainty for the project partners,” they write, “as the project maintains strong support and commitment at both the state and local level.”
Any restoration of passenger train service to Iowa City from Chicago would be more than a half century too late for me to make a train connection from the original Miami – Chicago ‘Floridian’ while attending my Alma Mater, the University of Iowa.
“The legislators’ letter says the project experienced “delays brought on by a previous Illinois governor”
That governor was not happy that Illinois was broke at the time and IDOT’s revenue had been raided by borrowing against it by the Legislature. IDOT didn’t have the state match required to start the effort let alone support operations.
Now that IDOT is flush with fuel tax revenue and the State of Illinois has raised income taxes once again, Durbin & Duckworth have popped their heads buck up for the train funding whack-a-mole.
Seems to be little or no mention of support from Iowa is that due to the Party platform? I bet if it was Federal grants for Hwys or airports they would all for it!
The way projects move nowadays, we would be still in the covered wagon era when the railroads were being built.
Many millions wasted over many years and still no train to Moline. Your government inaction.
Do not expect service beyond Moline to Iowa City anytime soon if it depends on funding from the State of Iowa.
Let the funding expire is the simple answer.
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Better and more frequent service to say Twin Cities, or say Milwaukee, or say Detroit and or better yet to St. Louis/Lincoln Corridor w a couple dailies making its way via Peoria instead of Springfield if state wants to keep most of its money in state which is understandable. Heck, from perspective of Chicago metro area the state could argue that reliable frequent intercity to Indianapolis is a way better city pair/benefit to northern Illinois.
Rather pathetic, isn’t it? It would seem Iowa Interstate must be taking a page from CSX Gulf Coast banditry to demand public money for decades of under-investment in physical plant.
Am I understanding this correctly? Over FOUR HUNDRED MILLION spent thus far and no infrastructure improvements much less trains running on the proposed route?
Can someone please tell me I’m incorrect here?