HSR construction: Chicago to St. Louis

From Gov. Quinn's newsletter:
On July 20, Governor Quinn was joined by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin to announce that construction would begin in early September on the Chicago to St. Louis high-speed rail route. This project will support more than 900 jobs in Illinois and make Illinois the high-speed rail hub of the United States. This $98 million dollar project is federally funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus) and is part of the $8 billion allocated for high-speed rail. When completed, it is estimated that the total amount of time it takes to travel between Chicago and St. Louis will be less than four hours.

Summer holiday security measures

Fox 2 in St. Louis reports on the increased security for Amtrak passengers that has been made possible by the injection of stimulus dollars.

This comes on the heels of Amtrak President, Joseph Boardman, stating that, "Amtrak has no plans to follow most U.S. airlines and charge passengers for baggage. Security screening in major rail stations will be handled without installing the types of screening machines used at airports. Amtrak is increasing the use of dogs trained to detect explosives and vapors, especially on Northeast Corridor trains."

Illinois applies for cash to plan 220 mph service

Courtesy of Chicago Breaking News:

The state of Illinois has applied for $8 million in federal funds to help pay for planning regional high speed rail service.

The Midwest High Speed Rail Association on Monday said it applauded Illinois officials, including Gov. Pat Quinn, for making high speed rail a priority. The Illinois Department of Transportation applied for the grant money. The money would be used to begin designs for a 220-mph bullet train between Chicago and St. Louis.

The money would pay for the study of potential routes, the development of a business plan and an environmental review.

Rick Harnish, the executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, says the bullet trains "are critical to reinventing the Midwest" and meeting the region's environmental, energy and economic challenges.

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)
  

The Amtrak World Series

2 Months ago the St. Louis Cardinals took Amtrak from DC to Philadelphia. It appears that the Cards set a trend because "for the first time in recent memory, the [Philadelphia Phillies] boarded the Phillie Express from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia about 4:45 p.m., bound for New York’s Penn Station."

The article goes on to state, "When the first members of the team emerged from Penn Station on the corner of 32nd Street and Eighth Avenue, they were greeted by a couple of Phillies fans. Their voices were soon overtaken by more lusty locals chanting, “Let’s go, Yankees.”"

What a shrewd move it would be for Amtrak and Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA and possibly the NFL, to utilize Amtrak for travel and marketing purposes. Hannah Kirkner, a native Philadelphian living in New York, was delighted to see her team on a Manhattan sidewalk. “It’s very representative of our city to take the train. It’s so human.”

Hannah is absolutely right! Making players accessible to their fans in a great public space like a train station is a win-win-win for the sport, the fan and the profile of passenger rail. Imagine Cardinal fans greeting their team in Chicago's Union Station as they arrive for a series against the Cubs, or Twins fans wishing their team well before leaving from St. Paul's Union Depot before a divisional series against the White Sox.









Professional and collegiate sports are a key part of American culture, especially in the Midwest. Amtrak/passenger rail must become a larger part of our culture and a stronger public relationship with major athletics is an excellent place to start.



Yankees in 6

Grand stations NEED great locations

Second only to the safety and efficiency that rail travel offers passengers is the sense of awe that can humble any one of us when entering the grand station of a major city and looking up at it's vaulted ceiling, while surrounded by massive Corinthian columns. Entering or exiting a city through any portal that astounds you with it's beauty and sheer size is just part of what makes rail travel not only enjoyable, but in many ways magical.

However, as important as large stunning train stations are, the location of them in the middle of our downtowns and connectivity to local mass transit is just as crucial. A beautiful station can be an inspiring beginning or end to any interstate journey or daily commute as long as the traveler takes the train in the first place. Trains are appealing for their ability to deliver you right to the city center of your choice. A city's main train station on the outskirts of town might as well be an airport that leaves you needing yet another form of transportation to get to the heart of the city. Planners and Legislators must keep this in mind when selecting the main station for each city along the Midwest's High Speed route and the people of St. Paul, Minnesota have done just that!

Below is a great video from OnBoard Midwest about utilizing the grandeur and central location of the St. Paul Union Depot and it's connectivity to the Twin Cities' light rail system that will carry travelers right to their metropolitan destination.



Excellent location and an inspiring station. CONGRATS citizens of the Twin Cities!

Other Midwestern cities with beautiful stations in central locations are:
Chicago (Union Station needs connectivity to the CTA and nearby Ogilvie Transportation Center)

Milwaukee and it's beautiful new Milwaukee Intermodal Station (renovated in November 2007) is right along the Menomonee River in downtown and walking distance from Marquette University.


Honorable mention:
Cincinnati (Cincinnati Union Terminal, although now a museum now with active tracks behind it, has one of the most beautiful facades of any station in the country)

Cleveland (the current Amtrak station is not much to look at, but the location is terrific with Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Rock & Roll HOF and the water front all within walking distance)

St. Louis (St. Louis Union Station is a stunning building that is unfortunately now a hotel and shopping mall instead of a train terminal, however I should be grateful that it is still standing and being used)

St. Louis Cardinals utilize passenger rail. Why not other teams?

Thank you to NPR for this story and interview -- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106939004&sc=emaf

On July 24th, the St. Louis Cardinals took three privatized Amtrak cars, from Washington, D.C., where they were playing the Nationals, to Philadelphia for a series against the Phillies.

Professional sports teams taking trains to road games opens up an exciting can of marketing and publicity worms for passenger rail. During the playoffs, or before rivalry games on the road, pro teams could have, for lack of a better word, pep rallies at their city's train station where the media could interview players and coaches, while fans seek autographs and wish their team well on the road. Sure it sounds a little corny, but it has to be better than always leaving to and from some private air strip where only the Travel Secretary knows that you're there, or in the case of the Yankees, Assistant to the Traveling Secretary, George Costanza.


Fans would get to meet the players, passenger trains and stations would receive much need publicity and it would be a new and innovative way for teams to market themselves. With better funding for faster and more reliable trains throughout the Midwest, and the country for that matter, I imagine it would be more enjoyable for professional athletes (on road trips of 500 miles or less), who often times happen to be a little bigger than the rest of us, to travel by rail where they can stretch their legs walking from car to car, recline their chair without hitting the knees behind them and arrive in the middle of the city they're playing in and likely much closer to the hotel and stadium than the airport would be.

Obama Budget Proposes $1 Billion A Year In High Speed Rail State Grants

Matthew Yglesias reports that the White House Budget Proposal includes a billion a year for a high speed rail grant program. You can see the high speed rail projects that will compete for the grants in a blog post at The Transport Politic.

Obama Seeks High Speed Rail Presidency - $8 Billion Stimulus Just Start

Today NPR reports Transportation Secretary (and former Illinois Congressman) Ray LaHood said, "high-speed rail could be a signature issue for Obama. 'I do think this is the transformational issue for this administration when it comes to transportation,' LaHood said. 'I think President Obama would like to be known as the high-speed rail president, and I think he can be.'"

In a regional context the report notes,

"Illinois, the home state of both Obama and LaHood, also will likely get a large chunk of federal funds. Chicago is already a major rail hub for the region and the nation. Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, an advocacy group, says his region could use the money to improve and speed existing service.

'What we're hoping the stimulus money gets used for is upgrading the existing route between Chicago to St. Louis, to get the trip down to three-and-a-half or four hours,' Harnish said. He also hopes to start the engineering work for 'a true high-speed line that would bring that service down to two hours.'

High-speed rail advocates also would like to see service between Chicago and Minneapolis."

Meanwhile the California High Speed Rail Blog quoted LaHood a few days earlier from the National Journal:

"Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today emphasized the administration's long-term commitment to expanding high-speed rail service in 'five or six regions' of the country, not just with the $8 billion provided in the economic stimulus package President Obama signed into law last week, but also 'in subsequent years a very substantial effort.' Meeting with reporters earlier today, LaHood said that for Obama building high-speed rail networks is, 'if not his No. 1 priority, certainly at the top of his list. What the president is saying with the $8 billion is this is the start to help begin high-speed rail projects.' He added that the administration 'is committed to finding the dollars to not only get them started but to finishing them in at least five parts of the country,' although he declined to elaborate on where these projects might ultimately be built."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that Amtrak Illinois ridership soars

Who says the media doesn't report on good news?

Amtrak Illinois ridership is exploding, thanks to the leadership of the Illinois General Assembly to double service, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Terry Hillig files this report on the 40% growth on the St. Louis - Chicago corridor.

At the end, Hillig notes the on-time performance issues that have hurt the corridor (particularly between St. Louis and Springfield):

The ridership gains have exceeded the optimistic expectations of Illinois and Amtrak officials but have not been without a downside. Trains are often late and it is usually because Amtrak shares its routes with freight trains.

"We had some teething problems in the beginning," Magliari said. "The service was initiated without any additional infrastructure."

But on-time performance has improved steadily, and officials of Amtrak, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Union Pacific railroad are discussing improvements that will make it easier for Amtrak trains to pass the freights, he said.

Let's hope they get on it. Late trains are unacceptable. And furthermore, we should be able to squeeze out the padding on these schedules to get these trip times closer to four hours than the 5 hours, 40 minutes we have today.

Imagine how many more riders we'd attract with a trip time of four hours!