Passenger rail makes brief stop in Quad-Cities
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By Kurt Allemeier | Monday, September 17, 2007 |
Talya C. Arbisser/Quad-City Times The 2007 American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners Inc. convention train crosses the Crescent Bridge from Rock Island to Davenport on Sunday. The train is made up of 17 privately owned passenger rail cars and powered by an Amtrak engine. Buy this Photo
The romantic era of rail travel made a brief stop in the Quad-Cities on Sunday.
As proponents for Amtrak passenger service in the Illinois Quad-Cities await a report from Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation, the City of Omaha, a 17-car train with lounge and sleeper cars from a bygone era passed through the Quad-Cities.
The train, sponsored by the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners Inc., made brief stops in Rock Island and Davenport as it slowly click-clacks its way from Chicago to the group’s annual convention in Omaha, Neb.
With adventurous names like Diablo Canyon, Hollywood Beach and Scottish Thistle, the trains are examples of early-to- mid-20th century design, often opulent. For instance, the Chapel Hill was built in 1922 for Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, and her husband, broker and investment banker E.F. Hutton. After several reincarnations, the car was purchased by a private owner who has refurbished it and logged more than 250,000 miles on it since 1972.
The hint of the old brings hopes of the new with it. Local officials have lobbied for local passenger rail service for years, and they think the report done by Amtrak holds good news.
“All indications are very positive as far as cost and ridership,” said Sally Heffernan, special projects manager for the city of Rock Island.
The report won’t be publically released until mid- to late-October, Heffernan said. Preliminary statistics from the report show about $40 million to $45 million in capital costs are needed to replace track and provide a station for the train stop. It also says about 200,000 riders annually would use the line from the Quad-Cities to Chicago. The line also could be expanded to Iowa City and as far as Des Moines, but Illinois subsidizes Amtrak service in the state.
“We’re optimistic with it,” she said. “It is one of those times when Illinois is in the right place at the right time,” she said.
The report has better costs and ridership numbers than a proposed northern line from Chicago to Rockford and Dubuque, Heffernan said.
To raise awareness and support of the issue of passenger rail service to the Quad-Cities, the Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition was formed, with 1,100 supporters so far, said Paul Rumler, of the Illinois Quad-City Chamber of Commerce.
“We are looking forward to the report coming back,” Rumler said. “If there is a reason to support passenger rail in the Quad-Cities, we have heard it.
“It is a great, easy way for Quad-Citians to get to Chicago and for Chicagoans to get to the Quad-Cities,” he said. “We in this coalition, we are putting it at the top of the minds of people in Springfield to let them know we want it.”
Kurt Allemeier can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or kallemeier@qctimes.com.
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