(The Peoria Journal Star published the following story by Omar Sofradzija on its website on August 3.)
PEORIA, Ill. — Gov. Rod Blagojevich is asking the Bush administration to reconsider a plan to make states pick up the cost of Amtrak, claiming Illinois would see passenger rail service threatened while suffering “another economic blow” otherwise.
“Passenger rail service is critical to the people of Illinois – in some communities it is the only public transportation option connecting them to the rest of the state and the country,” Blagojevich said in a prepared statement released Saturday, his first public comments on the Bush plan.
“While Illinois has a history of supporting Amtrak service, the Bush administration proposal shifts the majority of the responsibility of operating rail services to the states. Here in Illinois, that would substantially reduce service to a large portion of the state,” he said.
“It would be another economic blow to a state already grappling with a historic budget deficit,” he said.
The Bush proposal, unveiled last week, calls for breaking federally funded Amtrak into three separate companies. In the Midwest, it would result in a private company that states could contract on their own to provide rail service, if states choose to pay for the service at all. Otherwise, service would end.
Officials at the Illinois Department of Transportation agree with federal officials that perennially money-losing Amtrak is in need of reform, but they worry that the Bush plan doesn’t give cash-strapped states enough time to accept the increased burden.
IDOT claims the Bush plan, if enacted as is, would cost the Chicago area at least 2,000 jobs in and around Union Station; hurt tourism statewide; leave some smaller communities without any public transportation; end long-haul passenger rail service; and degrade Midwestern rail infrastructure.
Last week, state Transportation Secretary Tim Martin said he could not estimate how much money it would cost the state to operate all of Amtrak’s existing Illinois service.
IDOT already funds a $12 million subsidy to maintain Chicago-to-Quincy service with stops in Macomb, Galesburg, Princeton and Kewanee; a Chicago-to-Carbondale run; and Chicago-to-Milwaukee service.