(The following story by Mike Riopell appeared on The Southern website on June 24.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday proposed eliminating a majority of Amtrak trains that serve key downstate cities if state budget troubles remain unsolved.
The state gives Amtrak $28 million to help subsidize the service. Blagojevich proposed eliminating all of it.
The result, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari, would be the elimination of three of the five trains that run from Chicago to St. Louis and through Bloomington-Normal, Dwight, Pontiac and Lincoln.
Also gone would be two of the three trains that run between Chicago and Carbondale, which includes a stop in Mattoon.
”That would go down to a single train,” Magliari said.
He said state money is used to add trains to existing routes or add services elsewhere. Eliminated completely would be service including Quincy and Macomb in western Illinois, he said.
In documents outlining the cuts, Blagojevich suggested that the amount of riders on the potentially affected Amtrak routes has risen by 47 percent or more in just the last year.
Blagojevich’s threatened budget cuts for Amtrak were part of a $1.5 billion proposed cut from state government because the budget remains unbalanced.
But the final fate of the trains remains in question as the governor has yet to officially cut money, and lawmakers could step in as well.