Amtrak ridership thrives in the Middle West

An Amtrak press release this past Thursday (4/8/10) states:
In the Chicago hub, ridership on Lincoln Service (Chicago – St. Louis) showed significant growth with an 18 percent jump in March and 11.6 percent for the six month period. Hiawatha Service (Chicago – Milwaukee) continues to grow with a 14.3 percent increase in March and up 4.8 percent fiscal year to date. Elsewhere in the Midwest, the Missouri River Runner (Kansas City - St. Louis) is up 24.2 percent for March and 15.8 percent for the first half of the Amtrak fiscal year, while the Blue Water (Chicago - Port Huron) increased by 21.7 percent in March and 5.2 percent for fiscal year to date.

This increase is due in part to:

• Airlines passing more petty costs onto passengers. Spirit Airlines recently announced that they will start charging $45 per carry-on bag. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will be proposing legislation to prevent Spirit and other airlines from doing this.
  
• More travelers seeing the benefit of rail over air travel for trips of 500 miles or less, as evidenced by the quote from Amtrak spokesman, Marc Magliari, "While Amtrak considers the car its primary competition, the rail service has captured about 16 percent of the combined air-rail market between Chicago and St. Louis."
• 90% on-time performance for the Missouri River Runner, thanks to a 9,000 foot siding built by Amtrak and Union Pacific for $8.1 million (picture below)
  

Final list of TIGER grants and news from St. Paul

Sect. Ray LaHood remarks on the recently released TIGER Grants -- The White House's official release on the grants -- For a complete list of TIGER Grants - click here

Midwestern rail projects include:

• Project NameState(s) TIGER Grant Amount
• CREATE Program Projects IL $ 100,000,000
• National Gateway Freight Rail Corridor OH, PA, WV, MD $ 98,000,000
• Kansas City Transit Corridors & Green Impact Zone Project MO, KS $ 50,000,000
• Saint Paul Union Depot Multi-Modal Transit and Transportation Hub MN $ 35,000,000
• M1/Woodward Avenue Light Rail Project MI $ 25,000,000
• Normal Multimodal Transportation Center IL $ 22,000,000
• Kent Central Gateway Multimodal Transit Facility OH $ 20,000,000
• Ames Intermodal Facility IA $ 8,463,000
• The Southwestern Illinois Intermodal Freight Transportation Hub IL 6,000,000$

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Meanwhile the Star Tribune highlights the $35 million just received for the St. Paul Union Depot.

WTTW Chicago Discusses High Speed Rail Debate

[Hat tip Progress Illinois]

I'll say a bit more about this later tonight.

Obama Sees Rail Potential - "Railroads Were Always The Pride Of America"

President Barack Obama speaking Wednesday covered in Thursday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"'I think there's enormous opportunities here,' he said. 'Railroads were always the pride of America and stitched us together. Now, Japan, China, all of Europe, have high-speed rail systems that put ours to shame. And the potential economic benefits of a high-speed rail link between Chicago and Milwaukee, so that people are avoiding I-94, or the link between Chicago and St. Louis, Detroit, all those Midwestern cities, I think is enormous and is a very real option. Although gas prices are low right now, it becomes a very meaningful option for people who don't want to take off their shoes (for screening), drive to an airport, pay for parking, suffer delays.'

He also said improving freight rail in the region was critical and 'would help with the whole distribution of goods in the region (and) would save businesses a lot of money.'"