Although Metra is moving ahead with plans to replace a century-old former Milwaukee Road bridge over the Fox River east of Elgin, state spokesman Guy Tridgell says, “The new infusion of funding will require us to re-engage with UP, Amtrak, and the local communities (for stations) on scope, budget, and schedule after the hiatus.” At this point, there is no federal funding attached and no service frequency plan.
Delays on the route have been the subject of a lawsuit dating to 2012 that Amtrak brought against CN for not running the Illinois trains on time, but it has been mired in court challenges that have extended all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. While specifics have not been disclosed, it is clear that some discussions have taken place between IDOT and CN regarding how certain delay-causing bottlenecks can be alleviated with some investment. What will be interesting to watch is whether on-time performance expectations will be a part of any deal.
New Chicago-Moline service: The city of Moline has already built the Centre Station multi-modal transportation facility serving the Quad Cities. Stimulus-funded improvements have been completed along BNSF Railway’s route west of Chicago also used by the Illinois Zephyr, Carl Sandburg, Southwest Chief, and California Zephyr. Tridgell tells Trains News Wire that engineering and property acquisition have not been completed for a connection with Iowa Interstate’s ex-Rock Island tracks, which pass under the BNSF west of Wyanet.
“Negotiations with the railroad will proceed on the construction, operating, and maintenance agreements,” he says, but IDOT and Iowa Interstate have yet to discuss “scope, budget, and timelines,” which must be completed before the environmental process and preliminary engineering begin.
The appropriated $225 million is a match to a route-specific federal stimulus grant that is set to expire on June 30, 2019, but Tridgell says his agency, “is in active discussions with the Federal Railroad Administration,” and he “fully expects to have that extension in place prior to the expiration date.” However, he declines to estimate when service might begin to the Quad Cities.
Putting the Amtrak depot on the CN (GTW) was a good move. The new depot/intermodal center was on the southwest edge of downtown with easy access to I-194. The Amtrak/Conrail (NYC) depot was just center-east of downtown and quite old. In the 1960s there was a good hobby shop across the tracks from the old depot. Amtrak service returned on the CN east of Battle Creek to Port Huron in 1974.
Time for Trains Magazine to start editing/deleting comments as stated above that are off topic.
Mr. Harbauer, and use our tax dollars to do it.
A freight bypass already exists in Springfield. Freight traffic can be routed from the UP (GM&O) at Ridgely (Tower) on to the Illinois & Midland (Chicago & Illinois Midland) and CN (Illinois Central) through the eastside of Springfield back on to the UP (GM&O) at Iles (Tower). The CN portion was built by the Illinois Central Gulf in 1973 to reroute former GM&O trains into the ICG (IC) hump yard at Homewood (Chicago) and former IC trains into the ICG (GM&O) yard at Venice (St Louis). There are several grade crossings in the route.
A connection would have to be built in northeast Springfield to route Amtrak trains to/from the NS. Amtrak trains can go to/from the UP at Iles.
There is a historical footnote with moving Amtrak to the NS on the east side of downtown Springfield. Abraham Lincoln gave a farewell address to his friends and neighbors, and boarded a special train at the Great Western (NS) depot for Washington to be inaugurated as President.
“My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”
A little over four years later, a train would bring Lincoln’s body home to Springfield to be buried.
What Illinois seems to be most concerned with is to make sure women can kill their pre-born children at any point. Pure evil.
Will commuter rail to Rockford ever be viable? Sounds like a crapshoot. Why not a crossover at Deval/Des Plaines connecting UPNW and Soo Line, (and someday grade-separating this triple diamond) enabling many trains a day train from Ohare to Madison and beyond…IL needs to look beyond its borders. A nominal tax on off-road diesel would go far to improve both passenger and freight rail projects.
Redouble track the IC, DUH. That idiot tore it up. Now CN should retrack it but since their objectives are met with a single main, they dont guve a rats a… about Amtrak.
Mr. Johnston’s article serves one purpose and that is to show how screwed up the government priorities have become. Illinois is in the same mess financially as New York California, New Jersey and the other Democrat run states and cities have become. They can’t fund their public pensions or solve their massive crime problems yet they can fund unnecessary and expensive rail “improvements”. What are they going to do when the money runs out and there isn’t even enough to fund basic services, which Chicago is coming close to now. They are already planning to double the gas tax so that people who don’t use public transit are going to pay for those who do. This will all come back to haunt them some day. Illinois should look to its eastern neighbor Indiana which has a healthy budget surplus and has just been able to get rid of one of Amtrak’s “dogs” to see how they should be running their state financially.
I also want to throw in that as part of the HSR initiative between Chicago and St Louis, IDOT and FRA paid for UP to install concrete ties and welded rail through downtown Springfield, even though no trains were going to pass through at that speed. All the crossings were upgraded by IDOT as well.
So if they want to move the service, I would think someone would want those ties and welded rail moved with it.
Just sayin’.
@Robert McGuire: Illinois also instituted a $1000 impact tax on all pure electric sales due at purchase as part of the tax increase package. So essentially, they are taking back up front what the US Government will provide as a benefit later when you file for your income tax credit for your electric purchase.
User taxes based on fuels is OK if they aren’t dropped in large amounts all at once. If Illinois had incremented the fuel taxes in smaller bites instead of all at once, the impacts would not have been as great.
Also one must verify that Metra and Amtrak aren’t paying any fuel taxes for their diesel as part of the total package as well. I would surmise they are paying a wholesale fuel & sales tax similar to what farmers pay for non-road diesel. Any fuel taxes here would simply be passed along to the fare box.
Despite what was said below, California is not in good shape financially. Its long-term pension debt is not even close to being adequately addressed and that alone will eventually bring down the state. Its tax-paying middle class is shrinking which is emerging as a major problem. It can’t resist sending more and more on increased social programs which always grow faster than the annual tax revenues. CA has been aided by the overall US economic growth that’s occurred lately (although the governing CA politicians don’t want to admit it). However, the 2020 elections will have a major impact on the economy long-term. An anti-growth administration in DC will hurt CA as much as any state.
I believe that using gas taxes to support highly non-profitable rail services (or bike trails and other add-ons to highway bills) is not a good use of funds. If such rail service is desired by the state and its politicians then a far more fair way to do it is by a sales tax in the served areas. If the voters in the served areas won’t support the dedicated sales tax, then it shows that they really don’t believe that rail service is necessary and in their best interests. Rail fans might not like it but its democracy in action.
Great news for Illinois after Governor Ruiner put the kibosh on railroads a few years back.
Anyone who thinks that gas taxes should be raised to pay for rail improvements is bat….crazy!! Gas taxes are too high already. How about those with electric vehicles who get off without paying. How about the gas tax fund being raided to pay for trolley cars to no where. If I’m going to pay increased gas taxes I want to be sure that they are going to be used for road improvements not someone else’s recreational weekend joy rides on a trolley car that doesn’t serve any purpose other than to allow a politician to say he/she did something. And, I want everyone who uses the road system to pay the taxes to support the infrastructure.
I really don’t understand how railfans think sometimes. They don’t want to read comments that have politics in them but how do you do that when the author of the article posted introduces politics criticizing the Republican governor for doing the right thing and cutting off funding for unnecessary transit improvements and praises his Democrat successor for doubling taxes and going all out in funding trains that will carry a busload of people, if that. The first thing those who criticize political comments do is talk politics. What do they expect in an article about government subsidized transit improvements, talk about steam engine wheel arrangements?
Gerald, good post and I agree with much of it. Oh by the way did you notice your comments were political?
Gerald I’m a Republican and I think the Republicans are bat- …..-crazy in their opposition to gas tax increase. It’s bad enough here in Wisconsin but Michigan (where I was the past few days) the Republicans are way off the deep end, too nuts to believe. They propose to sell the Blue Water Bridge to support road reconstruction. What a joke!
Aside from the inconvenient fact that the Blue Water Bridge is worth nothing on the open market (a highway is a liability, not an asset), what good is a one-time sale? What do they do the second year? Sell Western Michigan University? The third year maybe sell Monroe County to Ohio? Sell the state capitol the subsequent year?
Here’s what I believe, Gerald. We need to rebuild the roads and the railroads. Not with Monopoly Money but by raising taxes. As a Conservative Republican I don’t believe in Funny Money nor do I believe in letting our infrastructure go down the drain.
As for Illinois, the pain should be shared by public employee retirees whose pensions are far too generous.
Actually, anyone that thinks this article is about politics needs to go back to school to learn about reading comprehension. The article is specifically about the amount of time that might pass before people see any of the aforementioned passengers services that Illinois has included spending for in their budget.
I would like for people to refrain from including California in the doomsday scenarios about other states, if you want to spout fake news, do it somewhere else as we now have a healthy economy and are no where close to being on the brink of bankruptcy…and that is according to professionals, not politicians.
Illinois is doing it right in this case, we need to raise the gas tax all across the board, state and federal levels. We also need to separate out bulk purchasers so they have to pay taxes as well. The entire fuel tax needs to be redone to bring it in line with today’s world, and come up with something for electric cars at the same time(of course people have to pay their utility bills so there is that already).
Dear editor: Please edit out hateful or off topic political posts. Please. These trolls spoil the camaraderie of our hobby. Please.
Here’s an off-topic howler, or call it what you wish: today, Tuesday morn, crossing the Cecil St. viaduct over the CN in Neenah, Wisc. was a foamer on it, whenapon came the strangenext small consist ever: an old beater GP 40 or whatever, with worst imaginable rust job, an old CN paint job baggage and likewise open obs. Two car consist and a beater rust northbound. Anyone?
The Big Timber photo reminds me of (years ago) the parallel lines of Conrail and GTW on the west side of Battle Creek, Michigan. Around the early 1980’s the lines were connected allowing Conrail through Battle Creek’s business district to be removed. A new Battle Creek Amtrak station was built on the GTW line, although the Amtrak route was Contrail east and west of Battle Creek.
There are a couple of reasons all of this rail activity is bursting forth. Illinois voters successfully got transportation funding separated from the general fund. That is why Gov. Rauner had rail funding removed previously as a reduction measure. It was in the general budget and that fund is way out of whack financially.
But the politicos didn’t waste time taking advantage of the new separation, they immediately doubled the fuel tax. Another big bucket to provide patronage from.
The furthest along of the new rail routes is the Rockford line. CN was previously being jerks about having an Amtrak line running on their Iowa sub. It’s a single line main on most of the route and many sidings would be required. UP was fine with it, as that line has been on the edge of abandonment several times. It’s essentially a stub line out of West Chicago. The connection at Big Timber is perfect as the rails are literally right next to each other (like in the picture). The Illinois Railroad Museum is on this line as well. I am sure they would love a weekend stop on the line at East Union.
Belvidere has already laid out their station location and have started updating their local bus transit to serve the station more effectively.
Downtown Rockford is a big question mark however.
There were 2 stations on the old CNW, one in East Rockford (very small) and the other west of the Rock River.
The original CNW Freight Houses are still standing and one is empty not under lease and sits just blocks from the county government center and retail business district.
There is a large yard here that is part owned by several railroads. CP Rail comes down from Wisconsin and terminates in this yard, Illinois Railways took over the yard itself, but cut themselves off when they allowed the City of Rockford to replace a bridge over the river and took out their ROW. So IR has trackage rights on the CN bridge over the Rock to reach home rails on the east side. The IR bridge is rarely used for trains backing out of the yard for positioning and is fenced off.
The CN Iowa Sub tracks come just south of this yard on their way to Dubuque.
If they want to set up a future Amtrak to Dubuque, this is easy as the UP line continues for another mile west before it terminates in a industrial siding. The switch can be easily placed to get Amtrak over from UP to the CN line (if they will allow it, as I said, CN has been weird about this from the beginning)
As for the Springfield Amtrak routing, it much doesn’t matter (IMHO) as most people taking Amtrak here have little to do with the Illinois Government. Besides its kind of embarrassing to go by the state capitol and all you see are HQ and offices for all of the unions and lobbyists and various law firms. Gives a clear indication of who runs the state you know.
The Chicago-Moline line is a total crapshoot. It will contain all of the financial value of the Quincy service (small) but huge political value to the local delegation who feel they are left out of the dust all the time. (just ask Macomb)
But the state is still broke operationally and is shrinking in population. Property tax increases are crowding out equity growth as well and so people are leaving. So you wonder who exactly will be taking these trains in 25 years.
Joseph, I couldn’t agree more. We can always count on a small cadre of posters, empowered by their own self righteousness to beat the party drum and pontificate on the evils of whatever political party they’re NOT a supporter of. It always seems to be the same people that are able to politicize the most innocuous railroad-related news item. Sheesh! Give it a rest already.
All – this is an article about Illinois politics. It’s not an article about the paint scheme on E9 diesels. It’s not an article about PTC or stringlining freights or distributed power or the type of ballast used. It’s an article about Illinois politics. So therefore the comment section will include comments about Illinois politics.
Some of the comments below are a bit off topic. All of them are true.
This is a hobby/enthusiast magazine dedicated to the hobby and pursit of trains and all rail related matters including the history and technical aspects of trains and this includes railroading and trains and transit from around the world. This magazine and column should not be used as a political soapbox or forum for non rail related matters and stop bringing politics into a hobby magazine. We have these magazines so that all of us railfans can escape the nonsense and craziness going on in this world and especially that cesspool in Washington.If any of you have a comment or statement to make about our leadership or government or the issues facing this country, there are appropriate magazines and publications that cater to that stuff. Lets stick to the wonderful hobby and ttopics of trains and railroading only. Stop bringng politics into our hobbies and pastimes.
Glad I don’t live in that state