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(The following story by Andy Henion appeared on The Detroit News website on May 24.)

LANSING, Mich. — Amtrak’s popular Pontiac-to-Chicago line could be one of the first routes to see improvements under a proposed infusion of federal cash into the nation’s urban train systems, Amtrak’s chief said today.

A bill working its way through the U.S. Senate would, for the first time, provide an estimated $300 million a year to improve rail service in metro areas. Local communities would provide an as-yet undetermined amount of matching funds.

Alex Kummant, president of Washington-based Amtrak, said his system’s growing Pontiac-to-Chicago line is one of the top three routes in the nation that could be in line to get some of that money.

“Michigan in general and (the) Chicago (route) in particular could be one of the best places to invest that money,” Kummant told a joint gathering of the House Transportation Committee and the transportation appropriations committee.

Kummant also met this morning with Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Kirk Steudle, head of the Michigan Department of Transportation, to discuss the potential of the Pontiac-to-Chicago route, he said.

By year’s end, Kummant said, the stretch of the route from Porter, Indiana, to Kalamazoo could become a high-speed rail line, with speeds reaching 110 miles per hour.