(The following editorial appeared on the Bloomington Pantagraph website on July 7.)
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — At a time when the state and nation should be encouraging greater use of public transportation, at a time when more people are being forced to use it because of rising fuel prices, at a time when Amtrak passenger numbers are increasing in Illinois, along comes the governor threatening to cut $28 million in state support for Amtrak.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is threatening such a cut if lawmakers don’t come up with a plan for closing the gap in the fiscal year 2009 budget.
His proposed reduction in state support would result in three of five trains being eliminated on the Chicago-to-St. Louis route that serves Bloomington-Normal, Dwight, Pontiac and Lincoln.
The action also would eliminate two of three trains on the Chicago-to-Carbondale route, which also serves Mattoon and Champaign, and eliminate passenger train service to Quincy and Macomb.
Look at that list of towns again. Bloomington-Normal, Carbondale, Champaign, Mattoon and Macomb all have or are near state universities whose students often use the trains to travel between campus and their hometowns.
Already hit with rising costs for tuition, fees and books, a reduction or loss in rail service would be an additional burden.
Illinois and the United States as a whole should be investing more in rail infrastructure – for both passengers and freight. It should be moving toward a high-speed rail system that would make rail travel more practical and attractive – as it has in Europe and Japan.
Instead, Amtrak finds itself fighting for dollars to maintain current service – and along comes Blagojevich to add another threat to its existence.
Dare we suggest that if the governor took the train between his home in Chicago and the state’s capital in Springfield instead of commuting by plane, he might have a better appreciation for the value of Amtrak and better understanding of the challenges it faces with on-time performance when competing with the freight systems for track time.
The latter problem is predicted to grow as demand for moving freight by rail increases in the next 20 years.
Freight congestion is already a problem and Chicago is ground zero. About 40 percent of U.S. rail freight moves through our neighbor to the northeast.
That problem can’t be blamed on Blagojevich. But, if his moves result in Amtrak trains being cut, it could be difficult to restore them later as freight trains take their spot on the rails.
Some speculate the proposed cut is more of an idle threat than a real risk, but it must be taken seriously.