http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-amtrak-rail-service-between-chicago-and-rockford-to-begin-in-2015-20140410,0,5594741.story
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
The route will eventually continue west to Dubuque, Ia,. with en route stops in Freeport and Galena.
The new route that will be utilized is on tracks owned by Metra and the Union Pacific Railroad.
The decision followed unsuccessful negotiations to use tracks owned by the Canadian National Railway.
IDOT officials said they are hopeful that agreement can be reached in the future with Canadian National to extend the service between Rockford and Dubuque on CN-owned tracks.
The new route will use Metra’s Milwaukee District West Line and connect to the UP near Big Timber in Elgin, officials said. Amtrak will use its existing trains when the new service is launched next year, Shacter said. The state is procuring new locomotives and coaches for 110 mph service on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor and for expanded passenger service elsewhere in Illinois. Some of the new equipment will be used on the Chicago-to-Rockford service in 2017 or 2018, he said.
Of course, all bets on this and other state-sponsored services may be off if Bruce Rauner is elected in November, which seems likely.
Good news. The sooner passenger trains are running to Rockford again, the better. The routing makes a whole lot of sense as well.
This routing makes a lot more sense to Rockford by potentially serving one or two communities on the MILW-West Metra line between Union Station and Elgin,as well as Marengo and Belvidere before reaching Rockford. In any case the CN apparently was resistant to hosting more than one train each way.
BuslistActually serving Huntly is far more important than Marengo due to the large Dell Webb retirement community located on the south side of Huntly.
With proposed service frequency of two round trips per day, and stopping at every burg between Rockford and the end of Metra's Milwaukee Road service, the only scheduling that makes the slightest bit of sense is two AM inbounds (to Chicago, of course) and two PM outbounds. This means, in turn, that the service will be strictly commuter, using Amtrak to go where Metra cannot, because Rockford lies outside Metra's statutory service area. Based on the foregoing, extending the service to Dubuque (or anywhere beyond Rockford, for that matter) is a waste of money*. After all, who in his right mind wants to take a commuter train making every whistle stop from Dubuque to anywhere but Chicago, and who wants to get up before the cows to do so? Yes, the old Milwaukee Road portion of this route passes through, but doesn't stop at, Bensenville or Franklin Park, inconveniently close to O'Hare Airport -- this service, remember, is slated to be offered by Amtrak, which is most definitely not in the local commuter rail business. Moreover, count on Metra to resist fiercely any attempt to let Amtrak stop at its (Metra's) stations, which are intermediate between because it would certainly divert some captive passenger revenue to a competitor. At least, if I were Metra, that would be my position, and I'd not hesitate to use all the political muscle at my disposal to make it stick.
And this brings us to the outfit that would be providing the service. Amtrak, to put it politely, comes along with a lot of very heavy baggage, and not the most favorable name among the travelling public. Widely known as an outfit that is limping along from month to month (hey! read the posts along here that talk about Amtrak: none exactly euphoric about the quality of the services Amtrak provides today) is hardly the sort of reassurance riders want to sample.
In sum, one cannot help but see many bumps in the track, potentially a whole lot of money spent, all to at best modest avail.
*A far better use of funds (in your correspondent's humble opinion) would be to take the bucks that pie-eyed dreamers want to blow on Dubuque service and use them instead to extend passenger service to DeKalb over the UP West Line. With a university anchor (22,000 students) in DeKalb, there would seem to be built into the extension a natural ridership base -- an argument nobody can make convincingly about Dubuque, or Freeport or Galena for that matter. Of course, the fact that Metra doesn't serve DeKalb County presents the same problem as its not serving Rockford.
Seriously folks, is it worth $223 million to get one or two trains per day between Rockford, IL and Elgin, IL. (Elgin - Chicago already has Metra service.)
The state of Illinois can't pay its bills in a timely manner and cannot cover its pension obligations. It's already increased the income tax. Do you really think $223 million should be spent on this?
There continue to be rumors of extending Metra the short distance from Elburn to DeKalb.
If I remember correctly, you can ride Amtrak from LaGrange or Homewood or Glenview to Chicago IF you are connecting to another Amtrak train in Chicago, Otherwise they will not sell you a ticket and will not allow you to board the inbound train. You can buy a ticket from New Haven to New York, but from Stamford you must be connecting to another train in New York or riding beyond New York. Trenton to Philladelphia or New York or Newark is OK. I do not know the policy at Princeton J.c or Newark Airport.
greyhounds Seriously folks, is it worth $223 million to get one or two trains per day between Rockford, IL and Elgin, IL. (Elgin - Chicago already has Metra service.) The state of Illinois can't pay its bills in a timely manner and cannot cover its pension obligations. It's already increased the income tax. Do you really think $223 million should be spent on this?
On another thread Buslist reported that the Illinois House passed a resolution supporting rail service between the Quad Cities and Danville. If this had been posted 14 days ago I'd think it was an April Fools Day joke. The pols in Springfield must be smoking something other than cigars if they think such a route could ever be viable.
Mark
Comparing Milwaukee with Rockford is like comparing Paris with Joliet -- both have French names.
billio Comparing Milwaukee with Rockford is like comparing Paris with Joliet -- both have French names.
Hardly. Rockford is no great shakes as a city (150,000) but neither is Milwaukee (600,000). Hiawatha service has been a great success and growing. The Blackhawk service could be, also.
I remember several routes were considered, but I do not recall the details of that one. After DeKalb on the UP/CNW, what track would it have used to Rockford? The DeKalb route was not one of the four considered in the Amtrak feasibility study of 2007, however.
Of course the railroad north from DeKalb to Sycamore is long gone. There's the line from Rochelle to Rockford, but that would not be of any interest as a part of Chicago - Rockford, even though the northern part of that line (past the Rockford airport) was part of one of the route options considered.
Metra to DeKalb and Amtrak to Rockford (Dubuque) are fundamentally 2 non-related items. Shouldn't be an either or — both are very needed. (And while dreaming, I'd love to see passenger service restore on UP West to at least Clinton, IA, but I think that's waaaaaay off in the future.)
CJtrainguyMetra to DeKalb and Amtrak to Rockford (Dubuque) are fundamentally 2 non-related items. Shouldn't be an either or — both are very needed. (And while dreaming, I'd love to see passenger service restore on UP West to at least Clinton, IA, but I think that's waaaaaay off in the future.)
Running the CZ or a day train to Omaha on the old Overland Route would be great, but I doubt if it would be welcomed by the UP.
The CZ occasionally detours on the UP between Omaha and Chicago when BNSF isn't available for whatever reason. Have pictures of at least one such detour back when it was still CNW.
As far as Iowa planners are concerned, the favored route for future passenger service across Iowa is IAIS and we all know how fast that's moving forward (or not).
But that's all getting way off topic from talking about passenger service to Rockford. I'd love to be able to go out to the railroad bridge (UP/ICE) west of Elgin and catch the sight/pictures of a passenger train going to or from Rockford. Soon…
Without question, the new service to Rockford HAS to be extended to Dubuque and eventually to Waterloo.
Hey, Rams, it's been a while. Railroading must be taking up all your time!
Frankly, using the MILW West Metra line into the city is a far better choice than the old single-tracked IC.
jclassInteresting that the chosen route is the original Galena and Chicago Union, the first line built west from Chicago (1848). Maybe "Pioneer Service" should be the moniker, after the first locomotive used on the line, built by Baldwin. When I used to take Amtrak's Blackhawk from Rockford to Chicago and back in the late '70s, there were always many passengers on board from Dubuque. Hwy 20 east from Dubuque was not a joy to drive in those days. The 7th street depot, now the Patriotism Center Annex, was used during the late '30s/'40s (approx.) by Piggly Wiggly Midwest Co. as office/warehousing. My grandfather, father, and mother worked there. As an aside, the company grew into the largest PW franchise in the nation. The Main St. station, torn down in the '50s, was neat with the line extending out over the "high bridge" over the Rock River. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rockford-Illinois-IL-1920s-Chicago-North-Western-Railroad-Depot-Vintage-Postcard-/310873215713?pt=Postcards_US&hash=item48617cd2e1 Hope this plan rolls, though I still think the Rockford station should now be located at Alpine Rd. Fun fact, Rockford was settled from the west, not the east. Not sure how to get the links to work.
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