(The following story by Jonathan Turner appeared on the Quad City Times website on January 8.)
ROCK ISLAND — Getting new Amtrak service to Chicago isn’t the only rail issue Quad-Cities leaders have their sights trained on.
When a local public- and private-sector group meets next month with its elected representatives in Washington, D.C., it will press for funding to move rail switchyard operations from the Columbia Park area of Rock Island to the old Rock Island Lines yard in Silvis.
‘Everything would be so much better if the switching operations could be moved to Silvis,’ Denise Bulat, director of Bi-State Regional Commission, said today.
‘Iowa Interstate (Railroad) would love to see this,’ she said of the primary owner of the Rock Island switchyard, north of 5th Avenue from 24th to 39thth streets. ‘It would help their operation; they do feel a need to expand their switching operation and it’s difficult to do with their current operation. This whole project is very much supported by the whole Quad-City area.’
A memo Ms. Bulat recently sent to the railroad chief at the Illinois Department of Transportation says the current switchyard is a ‘significant impediment to reclamation and reuse of a 100-acre, waterfront industrial property that has major redevelopment potential for the city of Rock Island.’
Activity in the yard has increased dramatically in recent years, mainly as a result of the increased storage and shipment of ethanol from regional production facilities, the memo says.
Relocation of the switchyard would allow the area to be redeveloped for a ‘higher and better use, provide the railroad with a more efficient and safe facility, and fulfill a key element of Rock Island’s Columbia Park plan.’
The city plan calls for redevelopment of these properties as a mixed-use commercial, recreational and residential area, which takes advantage of the waterfront location, proximity to Augustana College and the surrounding KeyStone neighborhood.
The railroad has bought a 60-acre tract at the old Silvis rail yards (where National Rail Car has a shop) to move its operations, she said. Iowa Interstate has estimated a cost of $17.5 million to add tracks, an office, light maintenance facility, and move from Columbia Park to Silvis.
That does not include the cost of potential removal of tracks in Rock Island, said Sally Heffernan, the city’s special projects manager.
‘The yard in Silvis is much more efficient,’ she said, noting the tracks are more parallel, and closer together. The Rock Island yards are 150 years old and are ‘just antiquated,’ Ms. Heffernan said.
At a switchyard, rail companies move and compile the train cars needed to transport goods, she said, noting it’s rare for the same shipment of cars to travel all the way from its source to destination.
In addition to the boom in ethanol production, freight travel has become more competitive with trucking, Ms. Heffernan said, citing diesel fuel costs, trucking regulations, and improvements in moving from ship to train.
Relocation also would allow the railroad to move its stored freight cars behind the former Deere Technical Center at 34th Street and River Drive in Moline, Ms. Bulat said. That would help in planned development of that area for the new Western Illinois University campus.
‘It’s snowballing into a win-win for now three communities,’ Silvis city administrator Jim Grafton said. Lyle Lohse, mayor of Silvis, will be part of the 80-member contingent going to the nation’s capital.
‘We’re just pumped about it,’ Mr. Grafton said of the plan. ‘It’s putting the property back to productive use. One downside on our end of it, maybe we’re not going to get a lot of property taxes out of it, or sales tax, but it would be pretty difficult to put manufacturing there.’
The switchyard is ‘really an excellent use for it,’ he said. The site had been eyed for a $30-million intermodal center, but that proposed rail- and truck facility (known as RailTech) fell through.
The switchyard move is necessary regardless of what happens with restoration of passenger rail service, Ms. Heffernan said. And funding for the two issues are totally separate.
‘The main and secondary lines will have to stay,’ she said of existing tracks that go to and from the Government Bridge, crossing into Iowa and points west. ‘Beyond that, it probably depends on what happens with passenger rail.’
Both Iowa Interstate and Burlington Northern/Santa Fe have been ‘very supportive’ of the Quad-Cities getting Amtrak service and using their tracks, Ms. Heffernan said.
If the rail yard is moved to Silvis, that would better separate the passenger and freight lines, Ms. Bulat said.
‘If the switchyards were relocated in Silvis, that stopping and switching, backing up, and total stopping would not occur in downtown riverfront areas,’ she said. ‘It would allow freight trains to get off and be out of the way.’
‘It would make rail operations smoother for the Quad-City area,’ but moving the yard is not a requirement for passenger service to be viable, Ms. Bulat noted.
Congress will be asked to approve spending funds authorized in a $244-billion federal transportation act passed in 2005. That is a $350-million-a-year program for rail line relocation and improvement projects, Ms. Bulat said.
The money was authorized but never actually appropriated, she said. It would require a minimum 10 percent non-federal match.
The Q-C delegation is asking for $10 million in federal funds, and a local match has not yet been determined, Ms. Bulat said.
Quad Cities hoping for funds to re-locate switchyard
(The following story by Jonathan Turner appeared on the Quad City Times website on January 8.)
ROCK ISLAND — Getting new Amtrak service to Chicago isn’t the only rail issue Quad-Cities leaders have their sights trained on.
When a local public- and private-sector group meets next month with its elected representatives in Washington, D.C., it will press for funding to move rail switchyard operations from the Columbia Park area of Rock Island to the old Rock Island Lines yard in Silvis.
‘Everything would be so much better if the switching operations could be moved to Silvis,’ Denise Bulat, director of Bi-State Regional Commission, said today.
‘Iowa Interstate (Railroad) would love to see this,’ she said of the primary owner of the Rock Island switchyard, north of 5th Avenue from 24th to 39thth streets. ‘It would help their operation; they do feel a need to expand their switching operation and it’s difficult to do with their current operation. This whole project is very much supported by the whole Quad-City area.’
A memo Ms. Bulat recently sent to the railroad chief at the Illinois Department of Transportation says the current switchyard is a ‘significant impediment to reclamation and reuse of a 100-acre, waterfront industrial property that has major redevelopment potential for the city of Rock Island.’
Activity in the yard has increased dramatically in recent years, mainly as a result of the increased storage and shipment of ethanol from regional production facilities, the memo says.
Relocation of the switchyard would allow the area to be redeveloped for a ‘higher and better use, provide the railroad with a more efficient and safe facility, and fulfill a key element of Rock Island’s Columbia Park plan.’
The city plan calls for redevelopment of these properties as a mixed-use commercial, recreational and residential area, which takes advantage of the waterfront location, proximity to Augustana College and the surrounding KeyStone neighborhood.
The railroad has bought a 60-acre tract at the old Silvis rail yards (where National Rail Car has a shop) to move its operations, she said. Iowa Interstate has estimated a cost of $17.5 million to add tracks, an office, light maintenance facility, and move from Columbia Park to Silvis.
That does not include the cost of potential removal of tracks in Rock Island, said Sally Heffernan, the city’s special projects manager.
‘The yard in Silvis is much more efficient,’ she said, noting the tracks are more parallel, and closer together. The Rock Island yards are 150 years old and are ‘just antiquated,’ Ms. Heffernan said.
At a switchyard, rail companies move and compile the train cars needed to transport goods, she said, noting it’s rare for the same shipment of cars to travel all the way from its source to destination.
In addition to the boom in ethanol production, freight travel has become more competitive with trucking, Ms. Heffernan said, citing diesel fuel costs, trucking regulations, and improvements in moving from ship to train.
Relocation also would allow the railroad to move its stored freight cars behind the former Deere Technical Center at 34th Street and River Drive in Moline, Ms. Bulat said. That would help in planned development of that area for the new Western Illinois University campus.
‘It’s snowballing into a win-win for now three communities,’ Silvis city administrator Jim Grafton said. Lyle Lohse, mayor of Silvis, will be part of the 80-member contingent going to the nation’s capital.
‘We’re just pumped about it,’ Mr. Grafton said of the plan. ‘It’s putting the property back to productive use. One downside on our end of it, maybe we’re not going to get a lot of property taxes out of it, or sales tax, but it would be pretty difficult to put manufacturing there.’
The switchyard is ‘really an excellent use for it,’ he said. The site had been eyed for a $30-million intermodal center, but that proposed rail- and truck facility (known as RailTech) fell through.
The switchyard move is necessary regardless of what happens with restoration of passenger rail service, Ms. Heffernan said. And funding for the two issues are totally separate.
‘The main and secondary lines will have to stay,’ she said of existing tracks that go to and from the Government Bridge, crossing into Iowa and points west. ‘Beyond that, it probably depends on what happens with passenger rail.’
Both Iowa Interstate and Burlington Northern/Santa Fe have been ‘very supportive’ of the Quad-Cities getting Amtrak service and using their tracks, Ms. Heffernan said.
If the rail yard is moved to Silvis, that would better separate the passenger and freight lines, Ms. Bulat said.
‘If the switchyards were relocated in Silvis, that stopping and switching, backing up, and total stopping would not occur in downtown riverfront areas,’ she said. ‘It would allow freight trains to get off and be out of the way.’
‘It would make rail operations smoother for the Quad-City area,’ but moving the yard is not a requirement for passenger service to be viable, Ms. Bulat noted.
Congress will be asked to approve spending funds authorized in a $244-billion federal transportation act passed in 2005. That is a $350-million-a-year program for rail line relocation and improvement projects, Ms. Bulat said.
The money was authorized but never actually appropriated, she said. It would require a minimum 10 percent non-federal match.
The Q-C delegation is asking for $10 million in federal funds, and a local match has not yet been determined, Ms. Bulat said.