ELPC and IL Governor Pat Quinn Host Summit on Rail Policy
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
ELPC joined Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Northwestern University’s Transportation Center to host “Beyond Transportation” a summit on rail policy and economic development in Illinois.
The January 15 event focused on how investments in rail transportation will help create jobs and economic development. Senator Dick Durbin, Governor Pat Quinn, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo and other civic and industry leaders attended the event.
The summit convened discussions on how rail policy benefits local development, sustainability, manufacturing and connectivity in the global economy. The conversation covered the obvious benefits to Chicago and the other hubs of high-speed rail development, as well as the boost that improved rail service will bring to smaller cities that serve as stops on high-speed rail corridors.
“High-speed rail is an incredible boost in mobility that is not just for Chicago,” said ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner.
“It’s for the huge numbers of people — 2 million people within a 50-mile radius of Kalamazoo, 700,000 people in 15 counties within a 50-mile radius of Springfield, 1 million people within a 50-mile radius of Bloomington-Normal. This is beyond transportation. This is about communities,” he said.
Read coverage in The Chicago Tribune and The Daily Herald.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:50 am
This is very exciting! And it is great to have Obama’s pronounced support on this initiative now as well. What a great couple of weeks for the Midwest’s HSR! Thank you Mr. Learner and all of ELPC for your hard work promoting high speed rail. As a college student and faithful environmentalist, I see the benefits of investing in more efficient transportation systems–and it is great that our political and industry leaders are now realizing it as well!