(The following story by Sarah Roberts appeared on the Rockford Register Star website on November 23.)
ROCKFORD, Ill. — Regional leaders formally unveiled Monday a study that says commuter rail service from the Rock River Valley to Chicago would attract 222,000 passengers a year and is feasible within a decade.
The Northern Illinois Commuter Rail Initiative, a group of governments, chambers of commerce and development organizations in Boone and Winnebago counties, two years ago began studying ways to extend commuter rail service from Elgin to Belvidere and Rockford.
The Rockford Register Star obtained an early draft of the report last week. Monday, representatives from NICRI outlined the plan before a packed crowd that included Rockford Mayor Doug Scott, Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton, Winnebago County Chairman Scott Christiansen, U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
The $200,000 federally funded feasibility study recommends using Union Pacific tracks between Elgin and Belvidere and Canadian National tracks in Winnebago County. About 222,000 riders are expected to use the rail service in its first year.
“That’s a very good initial number for commuter rail service,” said Mark Walbrun, project director for TranSystems Corp., which completed the study for NICRI. “But what’s important is, there’s significant ability to grow.”
With a growing population in cities along Interstate 90 and increased demands for access to Chicago, airports and entertainment venues, the ridership potential is “extraordinary,” Walbrun said.
Christiansen also is pursuing an alternate plan that would bring freight service to the commuter route and link the railroad with Greater Rockford Airport. He has raised about half of the $43,000 in private money for a feasibility study by U.S. Rail Partners Ltd.
The next step for NICRI leaders, meanwhile, is to complete a funding plan for capital and operating expenses, gather public input and wait for Congress to pass a federal transportation bill, which could include money for the commuter rail project.
Project leaders also must decide who will operate the trains and how to pay for the rail service.
The NICRI study estimates annual revenue from the rail service initially would be $1.6 million, and expenses would be $3.3 million. Capital costs are estimated at $89 million.
The majority of the capital costs could be paid for by highly competitive federal grants, and the study recommended various funding sources to cover the operating costs, including a hotel/motel tax or a one-quarter-cent sales tax increase.
NICRI has the option to contract with independent rail operators or ask voters to join the Regional Transportation Authority, a six-county government that operates trains and buses in Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, McHenry and Kane counties.
Project leaders would have more control with independent contracting, but it would be less complicated to join the RTA, although implementing the one-quarter-cent sales tax is a membership requirement.
Scott said public input could help answer those questions and stressed that the project is a top priority.
“The message to get across is that this is going to happen,” Scott said.
Brereton said, “As you look around the country, the transportation being discussed in this project is right on target. What’s nice about this project is that it makes sense and … it’s something we can grab on to as a region.”