SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday marked completion of the latest section of the Springfield Rail Improvements Project, a long-running effort to realign rail routes through the city to reduce traffic impacts.
The State Journal-Register reports the ceremony was for completion of bridges and underpasses on Fifth and Sixth streets, known as Usable Segment IV of the project. Work on this $44.3 million segment began in fall 2019. Its completion means the southern portion of the project is complete, creating detour options for traffic for two northern segments still to come. Mike Mendenhall, project manager for the SRIP, said about 40% of the overall project is now complete.
Segment III of the project is projected for completion by the end of 2024, with Segment V slated to be done in 2023. More information is available at the Springfield Rail Improvements Project website.
The current Amtrak station is very convenient to the city center and government buildings. Looks like the new station is located farther away. If so, this doesn’t seem to be an improvement for passengers.
The map shows where the new Amtrack station will be. It does not show the current station nor the current Amtrak line which is just east of the state capitol building.
What a monumental waste of time and money. I moved to Springfield in the early 90’s. I have never seen a more neurotic city when it comes to railroads. This project is going to tie the city up in knots for years. Overall train counts are down to levels not seen since the early 90’s. Silly to build NS a double track mainline thru downtown when they only run 8 trains a day. UP runs most of their stack trains to/from Global IV at night. Massive waste of money for the little benefit gained.
I don’t disagree that they have wasted a lot of money, especially after redoing the UP line through town with welded rail and concrete ties as part of the 110mph CHI-STL effort. Now once this is done, it will all be torn out.
The new Amtrak station will be moved to the upgraded NS line a few blocks east with the UP line running next to it, since UP is the host railroad. That is why it is a dual mainline now, one for NS, one for UP.
Once everything through downtown has been relocated for UP/Amtrak, the line from Illes to Sangamon Ave will be removed permanently.
As it stands they can’t fully move over all the UP traffic just yet until the Grand Avenue overpass is done and that is just getting started with IDOT. It will take street traffic over what will be a large set of diamonds and switches for NS, UP and CIM. When UP removed the former CNW Nelson Line from Girard up to Barr, they route that traffic through the Springfield district as well, up the CIM to Barr where it rejoins Nelson.
It gets weirder, CN Gilman Sub comes in from the NE and takes over for the CIM at Clear Lake Ave. CN shares the line with CIM so they can reach their tracks at the Kincaid Power Plant. CN just rehabilitated their connector at Stanford Avenue which connects to the UP line south of Illes. This is just north of where the NS line from KCMO and the the current KCS, soon to be CPKC line comes in.
CN probably fixed it up expecting to win KCS and run trains straight through to the Gilman Sub and beyond. And they still want it today.
Of note the current UP line runs right through the Capitol District. The politicos have wanted to get rid of that line next to the state capital for ages.
The UP line also runs through residential areas, so does the CN line. By aggregating all of this “pass through” traffic into one large set of rails, which already are elevated over all of the downtown streets, you stop the train blocks on traffic and get that former Alton line out in one fell swoop.
The map does not show where the new Amtrak station will be.
The map shows where the new Amtrack station will be. It does not show the current station nor the current Amtrak line which is just east of the state capitol building.