ELPC’s Kevin Brubaker Discusses New High-Speed Rail Service in Illinois
Monday, June 14, 2010
Earlier this year, the State of Illinois received $1.1 billion for passenger rail, and Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis has high hopes that some of the funds will link Peoria to neighboring cities.
Ardis recently met with Illinois Secretary of Transportation Gary Hannig for an update on transportation issues that included rail plans for the Peoria area.
With a long-delayed state feasibility study on the possibility of train service between Peoria and Chicago still forthcoming, Ardis thinks the focus should be on a neighboring community. “To me, it makes sense to get us to Bloomington-Normal,” he said.
“The devil now is in the details,” said Kevin Brubaker, deputy director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, of negotiations now going on between state, federal and railroad officials on the allocation of the federal stimulus money that Illinois received.
“We’re hopeful we’ll see construction start later this year,” he said, indicating that the track upgrade represents a two to three-year project.
“The federal strategy when it comes to rail service is to try a bunch of things and see what works,” Brubaker said.
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