(The Associated Press circulated the following article on October 27.)
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Sen. Dick Durbin said Thursday that he was prepared to flex federal legislative muscle if there was no resolution by next week of Amtrak’s snagged expansion from Chicago to the state’s far southern reaches and elsewhere.
In a letter to Amtrak president and chief executive Alex Kummant, Durbin — the Senate’s second-highest ranking Democrat — again complained that the Canadian National Railway Co. violated an agreement with Amtrak to offer the expanded service starting next Monday.
Durbin wrote that he had asked his staff “to pursue appropriate legislative responses with my colleagues in the Illinois delegation to enforce these agreements when the Senate reconvenes in November,” but the letter did not explain what those responses might be.
Durbin also said he would share details of the matter with his colleagues on the Senate Commerce and Appropriations committees.
Under the deal finalized in July, CN was to grant Amtrak access along routes that begin in Chicago and end in St. Louis and Carbondale to meet growing ridership demand.
But federal lawmakers from Illinois say they learned last week that CN would no longer agree to one of the additional round trips to St. Louis via Joliet, was threatening to withhold access to the Carbondale route, and might seek to terminate all of the newly added trains in Illinois after just one year.
In the letter to Kummant, Durbin wrote that while he understood that talks to resolve the matter were ongoing, “there is little hope for expanded service if CN refuses to honor its agreement with Amtrak.”
The improved Amtrak service was to be made possible in part by a bigger state subsidy, with the Illinois General Assembly doubling the amount to $24 million this year. The money was meant to support seven round-trip trains from Chicago to St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy, up from the current three trains.
Nearly 1 million passengers used Amtrak lines subsidized by the state last year, a 12.5 percent increase that reached a new record for total passengers.