(The following appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times website on September 8.)
CHICAGO — When Janet Fisher’s father died in 1992, the family started reminiscing, as families will, about the good old days.
They remembered how their father, Milt, a lawyer in downtown Chicago, used to ride the Black Hawk train Friday nights to spend the weekend at the family farm in Galena.
“We talked about how convenient it was. I started thinking it would be great to have that train back,” said Fisher.
That simple wish has turned into a 16-year quest for Fisher, 54, who cheerfully calls herself the “crazy train lady.”
A retired surgical nurse who lives part time in Chicago and part time on the Galena farm, Fisher began talking with the Illinois Department of Transportation about reviving the Black Hawk, which stopped running in 1981.
As co-chair of the Blackhawk Area Rail Coalition with Liz Carter, Fisher learned how to write press releases and buttonhole politicians. She spent her own money — she’s not sure how much, but “it’s a lot.”
The idea won the support of Sen. Dick Durbin, and now Fisher feels like the dream of a train from Chicago to Rockford, Genoa (near Northern Illinois University), Galena, and Dubuque, Iowa, is close to reality — if only the state can pass a capital bill with money for the project.
“It’s an easy way of connecting northwest Illinois, eastern Iowa and Rockford with Chicago,” Fisher said. “The economic development that comes with this would be a boon not just to these areas, but to the state as well.”
It would also help tourism in picaresque Galena, which Fisher said has suffered because of high gas prices.
Last year, Amtrak studied four alternate routes from Chicago — all with stops in Rockford. Amtrak decided the most direct of the four options is on track owned by the Canadian National Railway, which has been in talks about the project.
Amtrak figures it would cost less than $30 million to get the Black Hawk service running again on the 182-mile CN route, including track upgrades and rehabbing some old equipment, according to Michael Franke, Amtrak’s assistant vice president of state and commuter partnerships. Not included is the local cost of providing stations.
The ride from Chicago to Rockford would take two hours and Chicago to Dubuque would take just over five hours, which would make it competitive with driving, the report found. The old Black Hawk run died because it took over seven hours, Fisher said, noting that since then the track has been vastly improved and would get even better if the line is resurrected.
Capital bill may hold solution
Operating the line would cost about $5 million a year, with half from the state and the rest from fare revenue.
These are two-year-old numbers. Operating costs might be higher now because of increased fuel costs, but the number of riders would also be higher, Franke said. Amtrak expects to see an 11 percent growth in ridership this year, because of high gas prices and traffic congestion.
Right now, no state funds are specifically earmarked for either the Dubuque line or another proposed line to the Quad Cities, according to George Weber, acting chief of the bureau of railroads at IDOT. But IDOT anticipates there would be funds set aside for the Amtrak projects, if a capital bill goes through.
Fisher said she has never run into any real disagreement with the railroad plan:”I’ve never heard anyone say this is stupid.”
But the plan has run into numerous stumbling blocks.
In the early 1990s, Fisher was able to get a verbal agreement to run the line with the Chicago Central & Pacific, which owned the track at the time, and Metra. The catch was liability insurance — who pays if something goes wrong.
Questions over exact route
That concern was heightened by the possibility of a maximum security prison being built in Jo Daviess County. By the time the prison issue went away, Chicago Central had sold the railroad to CN, and CN wasn’t interested. The people Fisher had talked to at Metra weren’t there anymore.
Fisher said Durbin advised her to back away from the project in 1998, because Amtrak was having so much financial trouble. The project gained new life in 2006, when Illinois provided new funding to expand Amtrak city-to-city service.
The biggest stumbling block right now is the long-delayed capital bill. “Without that, nothing will happen,” said Fisher.
There is also still discussion over the best route. The cities of Rockford and Belvidere favor a path through Elgin, Belvidere, Huntley and Marengo, coming closer to the Rockford airport but skipping Genoa.
Amtrak found this route would be more expensive, slower and attract fewer riders, but Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton argues that it would allow for higher speeds and be more efficient.
If a Chicago-Dubuque route gets the money it needs, it could be ready to run in two construction seasons, according to Franke.
Despite all the setbacks and complications, Fisher is optimistic that the Black Hawk will ride again.
“I’m always hopeful — that’s why they call me the crazy train lady,” Fisher said. “I never lose hope.”