(The following story by Mike Riopell appeared on The Southern website on October 2.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Efforts to bring Amtrak service to the Quad-Cities and other communities in Illinois and Iowa are inching forward.
Legislation awaiting President Bush’s signature establishes a $1.9 billion federal grant program to help pay for the cost of providing new passenger rail service between cities.
Although money for the program hasn’t yet been set aside, the program could mean Amtrak service between Chicago and the Quad-Cities by late 2011.
”It really would help a lot of people,” said Paul Rumler, executive director of the Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition, which has been pushing for Amtrak to bring trains to the region.
A recent study of adding a line between Chicago and the Quad-Cities showed that a trip might take about 3 hours and 20 minutes at a roundtrip cost of about $35 or $40.
In addition to setting up the framework for a Quad-Cities link that would also serve Iowa City, Des Moines and Omaha, the program could pave the way for Amtrak to stop in Rockford, with service extending to Dubuque, Iowa.
A Peoria stop also is under consideration.
The legislation doesn’t contain any actual dollars, but instead authorizes the program so it can get underway once money is approved. The earliest likely date for the federal government to earmark funds for any work would be sometime next spring.
If the money is approved, it would be at least two construction seasons before service could begin to the Quad-Cities, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Thursday.
The total cost of construction work needed to bring Amtrak trains to the Quad-Cities is estimated at $23 million. Similar work for the Rockford line would cost a similar amount.
Work on the Quad-Cities link includes connecting two rail lines near Wyanet, located west of Princeton. That would cost about $6 million.
Also needed is a station. Rumler said sites on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River are under consideration.
Amtrak has never operated scheduled trains to the Quad Cities, which lost its Rock Island Railroad passenger rail service in 1978.
The legislation was approved last month in the U.S. House and received the green light from the Senate Wednesday.
”For the state of Illinois, this bill is essential,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. ”The state now has the opportunity to access millions of dollars in federal funding to expand Amtrak service to communities where passenger rail is badly needed.”
Rumler said the program creates a new type of funding for Amtrak that could result in expansion across Illinois and Iowa at a time when high gas prices are generating record ridership on existing corridors.
”This is huge that it was actually made a priority in this Congress,” Rumler said.