Illinois has announced plans to run a pair of Metra trains to/from Rockford, IL. This would be via. the Milwaukee West Line to Big Timber, then up the former C&NW Belvidere Subdivision to Rockford. An interesting idea, but let’s hope that development costs don’t spiral.
The last C&NW passenger service on this line ended around 1952, over seven decades ago. There’s that Rock River bridge to look at – good luck finding an engineer who will sign off on that thing for daily passenger service. There’s the line west of Belvidere that will have to be totally rebuilt, not to mention upgrading the rest of the railroad. Passenger stations won’t be cheap, there will be temptations to spend too much. How many will ride these trains each day anyway? 20? 100? And what is it about this “flyover” at Big Timber? The lines run parallel at grade for a couple miles, don’t they? Won’t they just build a crossover?
A flyover at this point would all but eliminate freight train interference on the CPKC line, which is a preferable situation considering the local opposition to the CPKC merger. Keep in mind that a flyover at Englewood for the ex-Rock Island line was recently completed.
There already is a flyover. The CPKC line rises, then turns and passes above the UP line. It becomes single track soon after the flyover, so a crossover won't add restrictions to freight trains. The two lines parallel for a couple of miles east of the flyover. All that is needed is a connecting track between the two parallel lines, IMO.
There's an older thread about this in the Passenger forum. Maybe the mod can merge them?
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