Train routes skirt the Sauk Valley
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PRINCETON – High-speed rail planned from Iowa to Chicago may have little impact on the Sauk Valley.
That’s because the much discussed passenger rail lines to connect Chicago with the Quad Cities and Dubuque, Iowa, wouldn’t roll through the region.
“The overall impact on Whiteside County will be minimal,” said Betty Steinert, Whiteside County’s economic development director.
But while little would be gained financially by the Sauk Valley, residents here would gain passenger-rail access.
“For those people who don’t like to drive in congestion, this will make getting to Chicago easier,” Steinert said.
By 2012, Amtrak aims to have service running from Moline to Chicago for the first time since the Rock Island Line stopped in 1978, thanks to a $45 million federal stimulus package awarded by the state.
Economic development officials in and around the Quad Cities are celebrating the project as a major victory for mass transit in the Midwest.
The $45 million comes from Illinois Jobs Now!, a capital investment program designed to create and retain up to 439,000 jobs over the next 6 years, according to a news release from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office.
It is slated to pay for track improvement on the former Rock Island Line, between Princeton and downtown Moline’s Centre Station, and subsidize locomotive purchases for Amtrak, said Annie Thompson, a Quinn spokeswoman.
Quinn, who recently announced the funding in Moline, said the service would add 825 new jobs, 440 in construction.
Those jobs are to be created mostly in Henry County, along the Interstate 80 corridor, said Sally Heffernan, Rock Island County’s special projects director, who has worked closely with Amtrak.
U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, said the project will give the entire region a lift, even though it doesn’t run through the Sauk Valley. He estimates the project will create 600 to 800 permanent jobs.
“You’re going to have people that are working all along the route. ... It’s going to affect the entire region,” the 17th Congressional District representative said. “Everybody wins when you invest in something like this.”
Quad City rail service might make it easier for down-county residents, west of Morrison, to pick up a Chicago-bound train. But the nearest stop for Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon residents likely will be in Annawan or Princeton.
Early route plans include possible stops in Annawan, Atkinson and Geneseo, but nothing north of I-80, Heffernan said.
Trains leaving Moline will follow the I-80 corridor to Princeton, where they will turn northwest along an existing Burlington Northwestern Santa Fe passenger rail line.
Two trains a day will leave the Quad Cities for Chicago, and Amtrak aims to make travel times competitive with driving, Heffernan said. Quinn’s office estimates about 3 hours and 15 minutes to get from Moline to Chicago.
A separate Amtrak line is slated to connect Chicago to Galena and East Dubuque through Rockford, which would give eastern Lee County residents a chance to drive north for passenger service, Heffernan said.
John Thompson, Lee County’s economic development director, said he has heard “a little bit about it.”
“But I don’t think it’ll make much difference for us,” Thompson said.
Passenger rail advocates in the Quad Cities initially lobbied to have Amtrak travel the Union Pacific’s Overland Route, which runs through both Lee and Whiteside counties, but UP administration said the tracks were too busy to accommodate passenger service.
“They made too much money running freight,” Heffernan said. “They just didn’t think it was right for them.”
Heffernan has been working on the project for about 3 years, and wouldn’t have been able to get it off the ground without support from the state, she said.
She considers the new service, which won’t be available until at least 2012, the first steps in connecting the country with viable passenger rail service.
She still thinks DeKalb will get Amtrak service sometime soon.
Northern Illinois University is the only state school with no rail connection.
“I don’t know if the political will is there, ... but this is something we need,” Heffernan said. “If people are serious about ending our dependence on foreign oil, we’ll have to open up the country to passenger rail service.”
Proposed routes for passenger rail
Two passenger rail lines are slated to connect Chicago with northwestern Illinois and beyond, but neither will cut directly through the Sauk Valley.
One line will run south, roughly along the Interstate 80 corridor between Princeton and the Quad Cities. The other will run from Rockford into Galena and Dubuque, Iowa.
Proposed stops are:
South line: Chicago, Joliet, Princeton, Geneseo and Moline.
North line: Chicago, Rockford, Freeport, Warren, Galena and Dubuque.
