Amtrak

Fort Madison has been working for more than a decade to relocate Amtrak from its 20th Street station to the historic train depot in Riverview Park. Mayor Brad Randolph said he plans to meet with the state to try to keep the project moving ahead.

The Fort Madison City Council this week signed an amended agreement related to the planned relocation of Amtrak to the historic depot in Riverview Park. There is still some work to do, though, before passenger rail service is offered downtown.

I doubt that many people would disagree with me when I say big governments – those in  Washington DC and Springfield -  have not been working very well in the past few years.  Washington and Springfield seem to have a very difficult time doing anything. 

Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation said new locomotives will be put into use on a number of routes, including the Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg service between Quincy and Chicago.

More than 4.6 million people rode an Amtrak train in Illinois in 2016. Overall ridership on Illinois routes was down about 3.5% from 2015. In Macomb, ridership dropped to about 68,000. 

Freshman Congressman Darin LaHood (R-IL) said he will support Donald Trump if the businessman/TV celebrity ends up as the Republican presidential nominee.  LaHood made his comments during an interview with Tri States Public Radio that also touched on a number of other topics, including Amtrak funding.

It has been a slow go for Fort Madison when it comes to the city's attempt to bring passenger rail service downtown. But there might soon be a light at the end of the tunnel.

The passenger rail agency said it will renovate the Macomb Travel Center to make it more easily accessible for everyone.

It took a year to complete upgrades to the building in Galesburg's downtown area. The project cost $689,000, with most of the money coming from the state and federal governments.

Ray LaHood spent more than two decades in Congress and served another 4 1/2 years as President Barack Obama's first Secretary of Transportation.

Twenty-one people died from train-related incidents in Illinois last year. That's the second most train-related deaths of any state.  The effect on victims and their families is fairly obvious. But what happens to the railroad employees when that kind of trauma occurs, and how do they cope?

City leaders in Fort Madison still have some work to do before they can bring passenger rail service to the downtown district.  The Mississippi River was known to surround the historic Santa Fe Depot in Riverview Park on occasion, which does not bode well for train traffic.

State Representative Don Moffitt (R-Gilson) wants to find ways to keep an Amtrak line chugging along through his district.  He said service could be cut on the Illinois Zephyr line as part of Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed 40% reduction in funding for in-state Amtrak lines.

Two projects are underway to help transportation in Galesburg.

The City Council this week approved a project to enclose the north and south porch areas at the Amtrak station.

A free book rack at the Macomb Amtrak station has been providing reading material to travelers for 10 years.

Tom and Gayle Carper of Macomb have more than 1,000 photos from the years when Tom owned bars in town.  They decided the pictures should be shared and started posting them to Flickr and Facebook.

During winter weather, it’s common for flights to be canceled and roads to be closed.  Usually the trains still run without incident. 

More than 100,000 people ride the Illinois Zephyr train line from Quincy to Chicago each year.  

Community leaders on the Amtrak line that runs through western Illinois hope to convince people to use the train for excursions within the region. They want to promote day trips and overnight stays along the line between Quincy and Princeton.

Tom Carper of Macomb has completed his four-year term as chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors.

Carper feels Amtrak enjoyed success during that period, though sometimes it was frustrating because the federal government has no dedicated source of funding for passenger rail service.

“So every year, we’re in the budget. So every year, people who don’t like passenger rail or whatever can take a whack at Amtrak. That’s frustrating,” Carper said.