Durbin: Wisconsin rail funding could come to Q-C
SPRINGFIELD — The Quad-Cities and Rockford could benefit if Wisconsin and Ohio turn down federal high speed rail money.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, on Friday said he is willing to try and get federal rail money for Illinois if newly elected governors in other states turn down the funds. Durbin said the money could be used to add communities to Illinois' high speed rail link.
"Right now there is fierce competition to expand Amtrak from Chicago to the Quad Cities over to Iowa City, to expand Amtrak from Chicago through Rockford in Dubuque," Durbin said. "We can now move forward with that, and ask for some money to improve the track there to make it safer and faster."
Work has begun to link Chicago with St. Louis. with track work under way north of Springfield scheduled to be completed next year.
Rick Harnish with the Midwest High Speed Rail Association said there long have been plans to link the Quad Cities and Rockford to Chicago — but no money to do so.
"Madison and Milwaukee are very important to Illinois' economy ... so I'd rather have a train go there," he said. "But we need to get Rockford on the line, then down to Decatur and Peoria."
Harnish said the current dollar amounts will not be enough to add every community in downstate Illinois, though he believes that should be the goal.
The first goal, Durbin said, is to get an answer on the funding from the Obama administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"I'm going to make sure that Illinois is going to get its fair share... I want to get in line to apply for the money from Ohio and Wisconsin," he said. "As far as I'm concerned they're making a big mistake."
Harnish still holds out hope Wisconsin and Ohio will join the rest of the Midwest in a high speed rail partnership.
"The new governors in both states have made it very clear that they don't want the money,"Harnish said. "But hopefully (the Wisconsin and Ohio) general assemblies will vote for the trains."
Both Harnish and Durbin estimate Illinois could receive "hundreds of millions of dollars" if the feds split up Wisconsin's and Ohio's money. But Durbin said Illinois should not have to put up any more of its own money to get more matching funds from Washington, D.C.
"The vote of the General Assembly for capital investment ... should make enough resources available," he said. "I don't want to drive this state any deeper in debt, but I do want to make sure that if we can take a dollar in Illinois and add four dollars from Washington to invest in our state, why would we pass up that opportunity?"
Durbin is not saying when he hopes to have an answer about the extra high speed rail money. It's also not clear if lawmakers, or the current governors in Wisconsin and Ohio, will have any say in the matter.