(The following story by Jon Hilkevitch appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on May 17.)
CHICAGO — The state of Illinois on Wednesday selected a rail corridor owned by the Canadian National Railway as the best and fastest route to restore passenger service from Chicago to Rockford and Dubuque, Iowa.
The 182-mile route, which would include a stop in Galena, is the most direct of four options studied by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
It also would be the least expensive to upgrade for passenger service — $32 million — and it offers the highest ridership potential, according to a feasibility analysis conducted by Amtrak and IDOT.
A separate study is under way to possibly extend Metra service to Rockford from Elgin on the Metra’s Milwaukee West line.
Federal and state funding still must be secured to pay for capital improvements needed to begin daily service to Dubuque via Rockford.
Local communities also would be tapped to help pay for construction of new stations, and an agreement would need to be reached with Canadian National, which owns the tracks.
The annual operating cost to the state is estimated at up to $5 million, based on one round-trip per day. Estimated annual ridership is 77,500.
IDOT officials said public meetings held in recent months yielded strong support for restoring Chicago-to-Rockford service, which was eliminated more than 25 years ago. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) are pushing the plan in Washington.
Officials said it would take two or three years to make the necessary track improvements. Travel times would be about two hours from Chicago to Rockford and about five hours from Chicago to Dubuque. Officials said those travel times would be competitive with automobile driving, helping to reduce traffic congestion on the Northwest Tollway (Interstate Highway 90).
Separately, Amtrak and IDOT are studying possible service from Chicago to the Quad Cities, including Rock Island and Moline, and to Peoria. Both areas lost passenger rail service in 1978 when the Rock Island Railroad discontinued operations.