(The following appeared on the Register-Mail website on May 11, 2011.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Additional rail cars and locomotives can’t come soon enough on three Illinois Amtrak lines expected to carry well over 1 million passengers this year, a spokesman said Monday.
But passengers on those lines, which includes the line through Galesburg, should benefit from federal funding that will allow Amtrak to increase capacity by adding extra rail cars. Ridership figures have been rising steadily in Galesburg and across Amtrak’s rail system.
The cars will be purchased with a $286 million federal grant that was announced Monday The high-speed rail money from the U.S. Department of Transportation will pay for 48 passenger cars and seven locomotives.
Nearly 721,000 passengers took Amtrak trains in Illinois through the first seven months of the federal fiscal year that began Oct. 1. That’s a 9.6 percent increase from the same period in the previous fiscal year.
According to Amtrak statistics, in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2010, ridership at the Galesburg depot climbed to 102,851, an increase from 2009, which saw 97,013. In 2008, ridership was posted at 98,419.
Full story: Register-Mail