Illinois Amtrak Service

Just shifting this thread a little south, I happen to run across this article last night. It seems 110mph running will soon be the normal for IL, which I believe is a step in the right direction. However there are some opposition where residents want to condense track in Springfield literally taking 3 ROW down to 1 that would be shared freight and Amtrak service. A previous article a few pages back in this thread said consolidating 2 ROW into 1. Its apparently a long shot of this ever happening however what do you fellas think would be the impact on Amtrak service to and from the "land of Lincolns" capitol? Personally I'm not sure what the Rail traffic in the area is like but I can only Imagine 3 to 1 makes for a nightmare and a good amount of padding in the schedule being added to accommodate.

Quote....."Residents and city officials who attended the meeting in hopes of learning more about the preferred route for trains through Springfield said there wasn’t much new at the meeting. But they took the chance to submit comments in favor of consolidating Third, 10th and 19th Street rail traffic on the 10th Street line."

story... http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x587877 ... this-summe

They're really worried about more freight traffic on 3rd St, especially if it gets doubled-tracked.

If some move has to happen, my preference is to keep passenger trains on 3rd and move the UP freight traffic to 10th. The 3rd St station is very close to the capitol and the tourist attractions and they just spent about $600k sprucing up the station. It still needs a platform. However, moving passenger trains to 10th would provide an opportunity to build a bigger multi-modal transportation center. Moving freight to 10th now and passenger to 10th later might be an option.

Any of these moves are really expensive too. Some article said they'd demo the IEPA building and run tracks through to join the 10th street line with the 3rd in the northern part of town. I think that's a big luxury. I'd rather the money go to making more of the STL-CHI route faster/double-tracked/more reliable.

I feel like some of the opposition is just nimby, anti-progress, red-hearing delay tactics. The passenger trains are short and fast. They won't block the roads for very long. Let's just get on with it!

The State Journal-Register has already moved the story. New link - http://business-news.thestreet.com/sj-r ... s-summer/1

What you'll find more interesting is the 50-page IDOT 5-year Proposed Rail Improvement Program (published Summer 2011).
http://www.dot.state.il.us/prip2012/2012program.pdf

looking on google maps , there seems to be plenty of air space avaliable around the station and tracks . seems to me its ripe for development over the tracks , for an intermodal center and retail / office development to pay for it .

David Benton wrote:looking on google maps , there seems to be plenty of air space avaliable around the station and tracks . seems to me its ripe for development over the tracks , for an intermodal center and retail / office development to pay for it .

One might think. But the good burghers of my hometown have spent a lot of real and political capital on turning their downtown into the world's largest parking lot, and they don't want to give that up for some enviro-efficient building. They're willing to talk multi-modal transit center, but only if you put it somewhere so far from downtown that no one would use other modes than car and taxi.

Here's the vision of a 10th St multi-modal station.

sj-r.com - Springfield transportation hub concept gains support

Conceptual drawings of a single public transportation hub in downtown Springfield are catching on, even though there is no money for construction and it isn’t clear just yet where the facility would be.

http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x574396 ... ns-support

Why do I keep reading about a 10th Street alignment? Did I not read that UP has nixed the idea years ago? Plan all you want, spend tons of money studying alternate routes, but both right-of-ways belong to the UPRR, and they'll do what they want.

The 10th St line is owned by NS.

An estimate of $318M to move to 10th St. Way too much.

sj-r.com - Study: 10th Street best choice for high-speed rail
Local officials criticize IDOT, Durbin cost estimates

Citing a cost analysis prepared in January by an engineering firm hired to study alternatives, Van Meter and Houston on Wednesday pegged the cost at $318 million

http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x133644 ... speed-rail

Has NS agreed in principle that using their right-of-way is even remotely possible?

The UP has already agreed to allow 110 mph passenger trains on their alignment. Isn't a bird in hand worth two in the bush?

I guess IDOT and the FRA would make an offer NS can't refuse. This IDOT pdf has the alternatives being considered.

http://www.idothsr.org/pdf/tier%201%20r ... boards.pdf

I can't fathom why anyone would want to move the passanger trains further away from the downtown core.

E Runs wrote:I can't fathom why anyone would want to move the passanger trains further away from the downtown core.

The UP has a long history in Springfield of running long freights at a top speed of 10 mph through the downtown core. That is quite an inconvenience when trying to cross the tracks. A 10,000-foot train running at 10 mph takes almost 12 minutes to get through a grade crossing. Add in the time for the gates to go down and go back up again and its about 13 minutes. I know someone who carries a paperback book in the car to read when stopped at a crossing.

If two tracks means twice as many trains, Springfield residents expect twice the inconvenience. But if the freight speed increases to 40 mph, the inconvenience is only half. However, the math falls on deaf ears. Springfield residents have an emotional aversion to trains.

jstolberg wrote: The UP has a long history in Springfield of running long freights at a top speed of 10 mph through the downtown core. If two tracks means twice as many trains, Springfield residents expect twice the inconvenience.

But UP owns the existing tracks, why would they want to run their freight trains on NS tracks? As is, UP dispatches their own trains on their own tracks. Why would they ever move to NS tracks and become third fiddle, getting last priority after NS and Amtrak trains?
Even if Amtrak moves passenger trains to NS, UP freights are going to remain where they are now.

it does look like the carpark capital of the world . So we need to include a carpark in our multilevel intermodal station .
overpasses seem to be the answer to the grade crossing problem .

IDOT is trumpeting increases in Amtrak ridership since 2006.

The sustained growth in rail passenger travel in Illinois over the past six years and the phenomenal response to the added frequencies, along with ballooning fuel costs, are strong indicators of the importance of the rail mode for maintaining balance in our transportation system.

http://www.dot.state.il.us/amtrak/amtrak.asp