(Copley News Service circulated the following article by Mike Ramsey on May 4.)
CHICAGO — A proposed $12 million boost in state funding for Amtrak would add passenger trains across Illinois but create logistical challenges for the railroad.
Amtrak, which has faced equipment shortages in its national network, may need to find more rail stock for the new service. Also, Amtrak would have to negotiate with the private freight railroads that own the tracks it uses.
“We’ve put the word out to the host railroads,” Amtrak’s Marc Magliari said Wednesday. “As for the exact schedules and when they’d be implemented, that still remains to be worked out.”
Spokesmen for three freight railroads – the Union Pacific, BNSF Railway and CN – said the companies are trying to determine how to accommodate more Amtrak trains on their busy Illinois lines. Amtrak pays to use the tracks.
“Our capacity-planning team is conducting an analysis,” BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said. “We don’t have a response yet.”
Springfield, which is on the Chicago-to-St. Louis rail corridor, stands to see the number of daily round-trip trains increase from three to five.
A round-trip train also would be added to the Chicago-to-western-Illinois corridor that stops in Galesburg, which has three passenger trains coming and going each day.
Also, the rail line leading to and from Carbondale would gain an additional round-trip train – increasing the daily number to three.
The Illinois Department of Transportation currently pays Amtrak $12.1 million per year to run passenger trains downstate and from Chicago to Milwaukee. The state-supported trains are different from the federally assisted, long-distance Amtrak trains that also stop in Illinois cities.
Under the budget, IDOT’s contract with Amtrak would more than double to $24.3 million. The four new state-assisted trains would begin running Oct. 1 – three months into the next fiscal year – and subsequent full-year contracts would be more expensive.
State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, said lawmakers supported the Amtrak expansion with the understanding that the railroad would get access to rail lines and secure equipment and labor for the task.
Measures to add intercity trains in Illinois failed in previous budget cycles, but Schoenberg credited a number of factors, including rising gasoline prices and congested roadways, with this year’s success.
“It was all the stars aligning that made this happen,” Schoenberg said.
Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association, is among the passenger rail advocates who have lobbied the General Assembly for more trains as Amtrak ridership has increased in Illinois. Offering travelers additional frequencies will encourage them to take the train more often, he said.
Rail passengers who board a northbound Amtrak train in Springfield currently have three times from which to choose: 6:33 a.m., 10:29 a.m. and 5:07 p.m.