(The following story by Kenneth Lowe appeared on the Bloomington Pantagraph website on May 22.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Passenger rail service in Illinois is stronger than ever, but efforts to connect the Quad-Cities with Chicago via Amtrak will hinge on the passage of a state construction plan, lawmakers said Thursday.
Amtrak chief Alex Kummant said an expansion to the Quad-Cities area would require a cost to the state of about $23 million, and an additional yearly subsidy of about $6 million.
Even if approved immediately, it would take two years of construction on the rail link before customers could start lining up at ticket counters, said state Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook.
Talk of a Quad-Cities link comes as ridership on the Chicago-St. Louis and Chicago-Carbondale lines is on an upswing.
The company’s service from Chicago through Pontiac, Bloomington-Normal and Lincoln en route to St. Louis showed an increase of more than half the total customers from the previous fiscal year, while service from Chicago south through Charleston to Carbondale showed an increase of more than two-thirds during the same period, Kummant said.
State Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, likened the booming success of passenger rail lines to an earlier time.
”I find it interesting that in the early days of forming the United States, rail played a very important part, and it seems we’re going back to that, which I think is great,” Verschoore said.
The routes are doing so well, Kummant said, that not even the meteoric rise of the cost of oil has managed to affect operational expenses.
”The ridership growth has been so strong that it effectively offsets the fuel costs that we’re seeing,” Kummant said.
The state already pays about $28 million yearly in subsidies to passenger rail.
Kummant said Amtrak’s service in Illinois has improved markedly since the state doubled its passenger rail subsidy, allowing the company to run more trains.
”Illinois is a terrific rail partner, and when we look for models nationwide about where we need to go with Amtrak, we look towards Illinois,” Kummant said.