Passenger Trains > Whither Illinois High Speed Rail?

What has happened to Illinois High Speed Rail...the Chicago - St. Louis
Corridor?

After nearly six years, Illinois has basically helped UP rebuild the
railroad for their freight trains. Construction isn't even
close to being finished. It's still the same 12 miles of "110mph"
running, with a permanent 90mph slow order. There are no plans to
expand that territory anytime this year or next.

Now with the new coaches not coming any time soon and the money for
them going away, the whole Chicago-St. Louis High Speed Corridor has
been a monumental disaster...one step short of being a monumental
failure.

Perhaps emblematic...the covering over of the special Illinois High
Speed Rail logo on Amfleet coach 82542.

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I never understood the push to spend billions on this corridor anyway.  Seems to me it could be better spent on a Houston-Dallas corridor.  Who goes to St Louis anyway?  It's a dead city.  There is nothing there.  Bring back the Lone Star alias Texas Chief.  How about service from Texas to Colorado?

Kind of have to agree. All this money could have gone to more equipment, better frequencies, additional trains, whatever. Jumping ahead to high-speed rail is almost always a bad idea. We need better, more reliable passenger service as it is now (79 MPH). Then focus on higher speeds.

I don't think Illinois is going to pay for any new service in Texas or Colorado.  If there is ever any new Amtrak service anywhere it will need to be funded by the states it operates in.  Except, maybe, the NEC.

OliveHeights Wrote:
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> I don't think Illinois is going to pay for any new
> service in Texas or Colorado.  If there is ever
> any new Amtrak service anywhere it will need to be
> funded by the states it operates in.  Except,
> maybe, the NEC.

Most - almost all - high(er) speed rail projects in the Obama years have been funded by Federal grants given to states that applied for them.  Maybe Dallas - Houston has higher potential than St. Louis - Chicago, but Illinois applied for the grant and Texas did not.  The key contention of the post is correct though - there is precious little to show for the billions spent.  Much of it simply reversed the deterioration of historic passenger routes to keep what had been more or less status quo service levels.  The Lincoln corridor is actually one of the brighter spots of the past decade with increased frequencies....other corridors such as Chicago - Detroit and the Vermonter route still offer the same frequencies, albeit on better quality track.  Like UP, Norfolk Southern was an out-sized beneficiary of $100M+ spent to introduce one noncompetitive train a day to Norfolk.  Unfortunately, those defining and funding intercity rail projects have yet to realize that true gains in transit time and reliability come not from incrementally higher speeds in rural areas, but from eliminating low speed bottle necks and capacity constraints in the populated areas.  Illinois' grants could have been far better spent to enable consistent 70mph running on the St. Louis - Alton and Joliet - Chicago segments than trying to raise speeds in the flatlands.  Same can be said for Chicago - Porter on the Michigan line, the RF&P - C&O connection in Richmond and so many other places around the country.

Dave

Illinois is not paying for any of this.  All the money is coming from the US government.  If you look on the Illinois High Speed Rail web site you can find out what is going on.  They are doing major work in the Bloomington/Normal area this summer. 

Too bad "floridajoe" isn't still here to see the results of his favorite Midwest boondoogle...

Love the pic! There was one previously posted of a former bag car stenciled "Not Amtrak Owned".. Maybe this could be cropped and used as wallpaper on computers in the offices at 500 W. Jackson Street on the 2nd and 3rd floors? A fitting tribute in their retro office space!

Football team moved back to California.
Baseball team next?

This is what happens when you give the most corrupt state in America over a billion dollars in free government money.

9900 Wrote:
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> This is what happens when you give the most
> corrupt state in America over a billion dollars in
> free government money.

"Like" 

Lawmaker drops idea to tax Illinois drivers by the mile
http://abc7chicago.com/news/lawmaker-drops-idea-to-tax-illinois-drivers-by-the-mile-/1298012/

Was there really any intention of building high
speed rail or was the mission accomplished long
ago after the studies were performend and politicians
made their profits? 


I remember long ago when I managed a retail store - I
suggested errecting a large sign on the back of our
building to let customers know we were there on the
other side.  My district manager said; "That sounds
like a great idea!  Are you willing to PAY FOR IT?"  In
other words - he said I could have it IF I paid for it as
a percent of my pay.  I believed in the idea and agreed
to it. 

Would anyone in the Illinois Congress have done the
same for HSR if they had a vested interest?  If they
weren't instead spending "other people's money?"

/Mitch

Whadda you mean we have nothing to show for it.  The town of Normal convinced the federal governemnt that they needed to move the train station across the street, and got a pretty new city hall for it. Which, ironically, did not include a dropoff lane for train passengers.

http://t4america.org/maps-tools/local-successes/normal/

Now the town of Normal is convincing the federal government that they need TWO platforms and waiting areas, so they are going to renovate the old train station and rebuild the old platform.

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/nd-uptown-station-platform-coming-this-year/article_5506cba9-d09c-5d10-9330-a4bac610f574.html

In additon, they are spending $1,000,000 to build a "temporary" grade level pedestrian crossing to connect the two, but they want to spend much more (over $10,000,000) to build an underpass longer term.

Oh wait, you were talking about faster trains weren't you.  My trip last month they did run 110 between Dwight and Pontiac.

Ultimately, UP got a pretty new freight line with lots more sidings to run more traffic into Global IV.  I agree it has been a colosal waste of government money. 
 

This is Illinois' "Mission Accomplished" moment.  The day high speed rail died....

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Just thankful for my 100 mph trips on the Illinois Central Champaign District back in the day. A 90 mph curve at Humboldt, Il., and 70 mph interlocker at TY (Tuscola);the rest was pure speed. No political posturing needed. Thank you IC, back when it mattered.

9900 Wrote:
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> This is Illinois' "Mission Accomplished" moment.
>  The day high speed rail died....

Can you identify the two suits in the photo?
Appears to be the observation end of the Amtrak business car Beech Grove, but I'm not sure....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/16 15:00 by hazegray.

Federal money distributed by Illinois.
http://www.sj-r.com/x512656253/IDOT-Union-Pacific-deal-contains-no-penalties-for-railroad



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/16 16:52 by Englewood.

On the left: Then Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn.  On the Right, then transportation sect. Ray LaHood.

hazegray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 9900 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This is Illinois' "Mission Accomplished"
> moment.
> >  The day high speed rail died....
>
> Can you identify the two suits in the photo?
> Appears to be the observation end of the Amtrak
> business car Beech Grove, but I'm not sure....

Definition: white-collar crime refers to financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals. Within criminology, it was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation".

I couldn't resist....

Then Secretary Ray LaHood defended the original project as a "jobs project" not a "transportation proect" back in 2010. As a (Republican) representative back in the 1990s, LaHood oversaw the disapearance of a hundred million dollars on a previous rail improvement project. He knows how the game is played.

When you get too greedy, and take more than your fair share of taxpayer dollars,  the folks who were left out make sure you get a trip.  Former governors Pat Quinn (R) and Rod Blagojevich (D) can talk to those issues if they wish.

What happened to the 70% of the route being 110 mph by 2016?  I know most of the track has been upgraded to Class 6.  What's the hold up on signaling and expansion of 110 mph ops beyond Dwight - Pontiac?