Chicago-Iowa City rail project gets $230 million boost
A long-sought plan for a new Amtrak route between Chicago and Iowa City with stops in the Quad Cities received a major funding boost on Monday, along with initiatives to run faster passenger trains on existing Midwest rail corridors from Chicago to Wisconsin and Michigan.
But a request from Illinois for an $8 million federal grant to begin in-depth studies on developing 220-mph passenger service sometime in the future was denied by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which handed out the largest pots of money Monday to California and Florida's 220-mph high-speed rail programs.
Officials in Illinois, where the focus is building an emerging high-speed rail network with passenger trains topping out at 110 mph, said they will try again for more money next year.
"We are certainly still committed to the 220 (mph)," Illinois Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig said Monday. "I think we'll put our heads together to determine our next options."
The major success for the Midwest in the Obama administration's second round of rail funding was a $230 million federal grant to Iowa and Illinois to establish the new Amtrak service between Chicago and Iowa City, with travel times of less than five hours projected end to end. The train would also stop in Moline.
The line is scheduled for completion in 2015, assuming a steady continuation of funding, officials said.
Two daily round trips are planned for the Chicago-Quad Cities-Iowa City route. Initial top speeds will be 79 mph, which is Amtrak's current limit. Longer-term plans call for additional daily round trips and increasing speeds to 90 mph and perhaps to 110 mph, officials said.
The "green line'' to Iowa will be used to test biofuels and other environmentally friendly ideas.
The two states had sought $248 million for the estimated $310 million project. State money will be needed to bridge the funding gap.
The project is expected to create almost 600 jobs during design and construction, while $25 million per year in increased business activity is forecast once the new service is operating, according to U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
Meanwhile, Illinois also received $3.7 million to replace a railroad bridge in Wadsworth to help speed travel on Amtrak's Hiawatha line between Chicago and Milwaukee.
Michigan was awarded $3 million, along with $200,000 to Illinois, to conduct more detailed planning for 110-mph passenger service on the Amtrak route between Chicago and Detroit, with the initial focus on Dearborn-to-Kalamazoo.
The Obama administration awarded a total of $2.5 billion on Monday, in the latest round of funding to develop high-speed rail corridors in the U.S. About $8 billion was awarded in the first round, and $1.1 billion more is included in a proposed 2011 appropriation pending in the Senate.
Illinois received $1.1 billion earlier this year toward creating 110-mph Amtrak service on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor.