Group: Amtrak service needed in area
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By Mary Louise Speer | Tuesday, September 25, 2007 |
Once considered an endangered mode of transportation, passenger rail service is on the upswing and may be coming to the Quad-Cities in several years.
Illinois legislators updated supporters of the Quad-Cities Passenger Rail Coalition on the latest gains during a luncheon Monday at Centre Station Moline. The coalition has more than 1,100 members who want to see passenger rail service restored and serving the area. The coalition is an initiative of Blueprint 2010 and the Illinois Quad-City Chamber of Commerce.
“We want to keep Illinois as the railroad hub of the nation, and we want to expand passenger rail service,” said Illinois Rep. Donald Moffitt, R-Gilson.
Moffitt recalls reading that passenger rail was on its decline when he was a student in school. He is part of a group of Illinois legislators, including Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, chairman of the Illinois House Rail Safety Committee, who advocates expansion of the state’s passenger service. That would include an Amtrak route from Chicago to the Quad-Cities and possibly Iowa City.
An extension would benefit the 400,000 people who live in the Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline and Rock Island area, tourists and college students, Jim Bohnsack, chairman of Rock Island County Board, said.
“We need this service. It’s something we lost in the ’70’s. We build lots of roads, and we build them with taxpayer money. We need to do that with rail,”
he urged.
The next step in the process is looking at the results of a Illinois Department of Transportation Amtrak route study that is due out in October. Information being compiled in the feasibility study includes projections on numbers of riders, necessary infrastructure improvements, frequency of service, route alternatives and costs to implement the service.
The coalition estimates it will take about $45 million in capital funding from the State of Illinois to begin working on a route from Chicago to the Quad-Cities. Under ideal circumstances, the service would begin in two to three years, Bohnsack said.
Iowans are interested in extending passenger rail service across the river.
The Iowa Department of Transportation is partnering with Dubuque, the Iowa Quad-Cities, Iowa City and Des Moines to develop a statewide passenger service, Peggy Baer, director of Iowa Office of Rail Transportation, said in a phone interview.
“We are still looking at what funding opportunities we would have,” she said.
The first step is the current study, which would potentially extend Quad-City passenger service to Iowa City, she said. The Iowa Department of Transportation has asked Amtrak to complete a feasibility study on providing service to Des Moines as an additional component.
Currently the only passenger rail service in Iowa is Amtrak’s California Zephyr and Southwest Chief routes. Both run from Chicago through parts of southern Iowa to California.
The city desk can be contacted at
(563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.
Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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