Quinn, Durbin in Q-Cs Wednesday to celebrate passenger rail funding

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Phil Hare and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will be on hand to celebrate the $230 million federal grant for Chicago-Quad Cities-Iowa City passenger rail service at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Centre Station, 1200 River Drive, Moline.

Quad-Citians are invited to join the event, which also will include other officials as well as members of the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce and the Quad Cities Rail Coalition. Also in attendance will be Ray Lang, senior director of government affairs for Amtrak, and Bob Guy, Illinois State Legislative Director of the United Transportation Union.

Sen. Durbin and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin on Monday announced the money for the project, slated to be completed in 2015.

The funding is in addition to the $10 million awarded by the Department of Transportation last week for the construction of an intermodal station for the Quad-Cities Amtrak stop in downtown Moline.Illinois and Iowa are part of a nine-state regional effort in the Midwest to build an integrated high speed rail network.