Illinois Amtrak Service

MisterUptempo wrote:An article from the Quad Cities Times website, dated June 22, 2016, reports efforts to re-establish passenger rail between Chicago and Moline will proceed, providing that the FRA grants IDOT an extension for federal funding.

Invoking Fair Use-

Illinois commits to Chicago-to-Q-C rail project
Ed Tibbetts [email protected]
Updated Jun 22, 2016

The state of Illinois has told the Federal Railroad Administration that it is moving forward with the Chicago to Quad-Cities passenger rail project, an official said Tuesday.

The decision may well keep in place $177 million in federal funding that was awarded in 2010 for the connection, but that will be up to the Federal Railroad Administration, which had said the grant would expire June 30.

Local officials have been lobbying Gov. Bruce Rauner to ask for an extension.

“The Illinois Department of Transportation has informed the Federal Railroad Administration that it will be proceeding with the proposal to reintroduce passenger rail service between Chicago and Moline," Guy Tridgell, a spokesman for the Illinois DOT wrote in an email Tuesday morning. "As we move forward, we remain strongly committed to looking out for the best interest of all Illinois taxpayers."

Link here

Fascinating. Not least in relation to several Illinois residents who are members of the forum here, since it seems to suggest one of several possibilities:

1) Gov. Rauner is less of a budget hawk than they;
2) Gov. Rauner is a bigger railfan than they; or
3) They had completely mis-assessed the situation in saying that no one could responsibly consider this given Illinois's financial condition.

I had always leaned toward explanation 3. But I guess it's possible that Rauner really thinks this is another step towards financial ruin, but he's such a big fan of trains that he can't help himself!

4) Tax revenues are up due to an improving economy.

Hey guys, I just rode train #304 on 6/28. Great ride, I just have a few questions. I noticed that most of the route between Alton and Joliet seems upgraded to 110 mph service. Four-quadrant crossing gates, fencing along the tracks, those silly signs that say "Warning! Trains may exceed 80 mph", etc. However, the train only exceeded 79 mph between Pontiac and Dwight. I knew 110 mph has been cleared there for some time, but it sure seems like the rest of the route is good to go as well. What is holding it back? When can we expect Amtrak to start running the Lincolns 110 mph the whole way? Also, of all of the Lincolns that I saw yesterday (301, 304, 305, 307), none had two locomotives. Are the days of running two locomotives on the Lincolns over?

Tax revenues are up due to increased taxes. No joke. We got a 13% property tax increase here in Chicago, and it's based on home value by current market prices, not what you paid for the place. You are essentially renting from the state even if you own your place.

I'm a bit surprised Rauner is moving forward with this. Perhaps there is actually a solid business case behind it as presented by a real consultant such as Deloitte or PWC, versus the accounting firm of Daley, Madigan, & Blago Cheatem.

HammerJack wrote:Hey guys, I just rode train #304 on 6/28. Great ride, I just have a few questions. I noticed that most of the route between Alton and Joliet seems upgraded to 110 mph service. Four-quadrant crossing gates, fencing along the tracks, those silly signs that say "Warning! Trains may exceed 80 mph", etc. However, the train only exceeded 79 mph between Pontiac and Dwight. I knew 110 mph has been cleared there for some time, but it sure seems like the rest of the route is good to go as well. What is holding it back? When can we expect Amtrak to start running the Lincolns 110 mph the whole way? Also, of all of the Lincolns that I saw yesterday (301, 304, 305, 307), none had two locomotives. Are the days of running two locomotives on the Lincolns over?

Apparently not all of the track work is complete. There are still some crossings that need to be upgraded. The segment in Springfield has more work to do. Until that time. another year or 2 the only segment higher than 79 is the ten miles from Pontiac & Dwight. not sure how much tornado storm damage may be in that spot. Until then no reason to have 2 locos. Curious if the trains carry a cabbage ex-F40 on one end?

I did notice work this month on the 8.5 mile Elkhart siding.

Here are major projects scheduled this year:

* New or upgraded passengers stations in Springfield, Lincoln, Joliet, Dwight, Pontiac, Carlinville, Alton and Normal.

* Three bridge upgrades in Wilmington and one in Shipman.

* Siding reconstruction in Dwight.

* New siding construction from Braidwood to Mazonia, in Normal and Shipman to Godfrey.

* New or shifted tracks in Elkhart, Joliet, Normal and Wilmington.

* Upgraded crossing gates, warning devices and safety fencing throughout the corridor.

* Delivery of first group of more powerful diesel locomotives.

Link to the State Journal-Register here

Tadman wrote:Tax revenues are up due to increased taxes. No joke. We got a 13% property tax increase here in Chicago, and it's based on home value by current market prices, not what you paid for the place. You are essentially renting from the state even if you own your place.

I'm a bit surprised Rauner is moving forward with this. Perhaps there is actually a solid business case behind it as presented by a real consultant such as Deloitte or PWC, versus the accounting firm of Daley, Madigan, & Blago Cheatem.

LOL! Well ... hopefully there is in fact a better business case. I was surprised too and thought this project was long since dead. When's the next election and how does that area lean? I'm guessing favorable to Rauner?

GWoodle wrote: Apparently not all of the track work is complete. There are still some crossings that need to be upgraded. The segment in Springfield has more work to do. Until that time. another year or 2 the only segment higher than 79 is the ten miles from Pontiac & Dwight.

It appears that most of the crossings remain to be upgraded with quad gates. June 2016 construction status public presentation for Alton (provided on the CHI-STL project website). The presentation states "62 of 252 crossings completed" which is likely is the status as of the start of this construction season. The contract freezes that Rauner implemented when he took office in 2015 and the reported widespread delays in getting permits & coordination with the local municipalities for installing gates, fences, and road realignments at a few of the crossings appear to have seriously delayed many of the grade crossing projects. Until all the grade crossings have been updated on a long enough segment, can't run the trains at 110 mph.

I saw in the news a few days ago that IL DOT was going to have to issue cease work orders on July 1 for many road projects unless the legislature and Governor passed a budget. So the construction work for the CHI-STL corridor may get delayed even further unless the state can end its budget standoff.

Only one loco ? Maybe because of the system wide lack of operational locos ?

afiggatt wrote:I saw in the news a few days ago that IL DOT was going to have to issue cease work orders on July 1 for many road projects unless the legislature and Governor passed a budget. So the construction work for the CHI-STL corridor may get delayed even further unless the state can end its budget standoff.

As of today, there is a six month "kick the can down the road" budget passed by the General Assembly (Congress in Illinoisese) and that Governor Rauner has stated he will sign.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

The Illinois House and Senate on Thursday approved a stopgap budget that would keep state government afloat for six months, ensure schools open this fall and provide help to struggling Chicago Public Schools after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly struck a deal amid intense political pressure with the November election looming

Gilbert B Norman wrote: As of today, there is a six month "kick the can down the road" budget passed by the General Assembly (Congress in Illinoisese) and that Governor Rauner has stated he will sign.

I searched for news reports on whether the 6 month stopgap budget has funding for the Quad Cities/Moline project and was able to confirm that it does,

Quad City Times: Q-C officials: Illinois budget has rail money. Several excerpts:'

The budget that Illinois lawmakers passed and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law on Thursday includes funding for a passenger rail connection between the Quad-Cities and Chicago, area lawmakers and economic development officials said Friday.

It's not clear how much money was set aside in the legislation, but a state Department of Transportation official said Friday it will cover "pre-construction activity" in fiscal year 2017.
........
Henry Marquard, director of government relations for the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce, said a section of one of the budget bills the governor signed Thursday that had $100 million for rail projects included enough funding for the Quad-City project to secure the federal grant. And, he said, he expected there would be construction on the project in 2017.

The challenge to the state DOT managers is that the money is from a 6 month stopgap budget; to do much, they will have to expect that the rest of the state matching funds will be in the last half year budget and in the following years. With work stopped, what?, over a year ago, could take some months to restart work if they have to rebid contracts or renew permits.

Still, the long delay in starting the Quad Cities service may work out to have the Nippon-Sharyo bi-levels cars delivered and ready for the new corridor service on the day it starts. Whatever year that is.

Buy materials and equipment. Of course, when the second six month budget rolls in, there'll be downtime until construction season 17.

A small morsel of Illinois news: ground has been broken for construction of a new station to replace the current shelter at Carlinville.

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After years of preparation, city leaders broke ground on a new Amtrak station Thursday.

Thanks to federal funding, the city is only paying $70,000 of the over $3 million bill.

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It is set to open in June.

I recently received a pamphlet from the Secretary of State regarding a proposed Illinois constitutional amendment to be voted on this November. The gist is that funds received from transportation sources can only be used for transportation purposes.

The section of the pamphlet containing the proposed amendment contains a long list of items making up "transportation" several times. Each time includes the phrase "mass transit, intercity passenger rail". A section showing a much shorter version that will appear on the ballot does the same. However, the sections of the pamphlet containing a supposed explanation, arguments in favor, and arguments against include the phrase "mass transit", but never mention "intercity passenger rail".

So which is it? Mass transit and intercity rail, or only mass transit?