Aug 13, 2010: Hotline #667

Hotline #667
August 13, 2010

Amtrak announced that ridership figures have shot up on the Lincoln Service/Texas Eagle trains, with more than half a million passengers traveling along the Chicago-St. Louis corridor during the first 10 months of the fiscal year, an increase of 11% over the same period last year.

That’s 530,648 riders from October 2009 through July 2010.

Illinois received $1.2 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants, which will fund improvements to the corridor and increase speeds.  The upgrades are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012.


Missouri, meanwhile, saw a dramatic increase in ridership on the Amtrak Missouri River Runner, with a 26% more passengers served in the month of July than in the same period last year.

The train served 22,039 customers in July, the second highest single month figure ever (the record was set in July 2001).

“The significant improvement of the Missouri River Runner’s on-time performance in the last year is making it a more reliable mode of travel,” said Rod Massman, Missouri Department of Transportation rail administrator. “Growing dependability and better efforts to communicate the benefits of riding the train are drawing more customers to the service.”


Elected officials and transportation leaders gathered in the Normal, Illinois on August 7 for a ground-breaking ceremony for a new Multimodal Transportation Center, which will serve the new higher speed Amtrak service between Chicago and St. Louis, as well as intercity and local transit buses, and will include a multi-level parking structure

Taking part in the event were U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff, Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL), along with Normal’s Mayor Chris Koos, and Amtrak Board Chairman Tom Carper.  The project is partially funded by a $22 million Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from ARRA.  The other $25 million was provided by Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grants, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grants, and bonds issued by Normal.

“With the construction of this multi-modal center, funded with more than $10 million in federal earmarks and a grant through the ARRA, Normal is poised to become a showcase community for the potential of high-speed rail in America,” Senator Durbin told the gathered crowds.  “Those federal dollars will create hundreds of jobs in the region and generate millions of dollars in economic activity benefiting the local community.

In recent years, the small station—originally built on a parking lot adjacent to Normal’s Town Hall—had been overwhelmed by riders.  There were 192,000 passengers last year alone.  The new, 68,000-square-foot station will meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, and feature retail, a municipal office space, and a community room.

“Stations are one of my great interests–and as a former mayor—I know they are engines of economic development,” said Carper, chairman of the Amtrak board of directors. “We look forward to working with Illinois to realize the economic potential of this rail corridor and further support a growing market for Amtrak.”


In the wake of the August 6 deadline for the second round of applications for high speed rail funding, states have begun to publicize announcements about their submissions to the Federal Railroad Administration.

The list of applications released to the public so far include:

• New York—$107.98 million: Notable projects include $42.98 million for final design and construction of a fourth track at Rensselaer Station, $24.96 million for final design and construction of the Niagara Falls Rail Station, and for final design and construction of Syracuse Area Corridor Congestion Relief.
• Massachusetts—$32.5 million: design phase for the Boston South Station Expansion Project, to construct seven new tracks (bring South Station’s total to 20), relocate the U.S. Postal Service’s onsite facility to allow for expansion, and work on three key track interlockings. “Our administration understands the importance of expanding commuter rail service for the Central, Metrowest and Southcoast regions,” said Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray (D). “This application offers a great opportunity to seek additional funding for infrastructure and design improvements at South Station.”
• Illinois & Iowa—$248 million: for the Quad-Cities Project, a $310 million link between Chicago, Moline, Geneseo, and Iowa City.  Project includes improvements to a station outside Chicago, expansions to six miles of track in the Quad-City area, and new railcars. State transportation officials predict a first-year ridership of 246,000 passengers, and that the project would create 600 new jobs over the first four years.
• California—$1 billion: application seeks additional funding for the segments that received funding in last year’s round of grant making: Merced to Fresno, Fresno to Bakersfield, Los Angeles to Anaheim and San Francisco to San Jose. The projects included in the application cover track and signal work on multiple stretches, station construction, and electrification of a stretch of track between San Jose and San Francisco. “This is another opportunity to bring federal dollars to California to help build the largest infrastructure project in the country - a project that will create thousands of jobs and enormous opportunities for our economy - and we’re determined to take advantage of it,” said California High Speed Rail Authority Chairman Curt Pringle.
• Florida—$1.35 billion: $1.1 billion for the Orlando-Tampa high speed rail line, which would provide enough money to complete the project in-full.  $250 million to restart train service along Florida’s east coast from Jacksonville to Miami, which requires track upgrades and station construction.
• Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky—$34 million: Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee, on to Nashville, and eventually to Louisville, Kentucky.  Environmental planning and engineering between Atlanta and Chattanooga and Chattanooga to Nashville, and station design work. “Even before the federal high speed rail program was announced last year, Georgia DOT was already planning several related projects such as the Atlanta-Chattanooga High-Speed Ground Transportation Project and the downtown Atlanta Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal,” Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Vance C. Smith Jr. announced Monday.  “We expect to fit right in.”

Just in time for school, Amtrak Virginia is announcing a special discount for college students traveling by train in Virginia.

With a valid school-issued ID, students will receive a 15% discount off the regular adult fare on Northeast Regional trains, valid for travel to or from Lynchburg, Ashland, Culpeper, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Newport News, Richmond and Williamsburg

The limited-time discount is valid for travel between now and December 31, but purchases must be made before October 31.  See AmtrakVirginia.com for full details.


Twenty-one passengers aboard Amtrak’s San Joaquin received minor injuries on August 6 when the train collided with a semi-trailer at a highway grade crossing near Shafter, California.

Train 714 was carrying 219 passengers on its way south to Bakersfield, when it hit a truck that was blocking the tracks at a speed of 79 mph.  The injured passengers were taken to nearby hospitals, and the remaining passengers were bussed the rest of the way to Bakersfield. 

Shafter police report that the crossing gates were working when the collision happened.  The driver of the truck was uninjured. 


The high speed train that runs between the United Kingdom and Europe is reporting a 6% increase in ridership, and an 18% bump in revenue, for the first half of 2010.

Some of the increase is attributed to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southern Iceland, which spewed massive clouds of ash and extensively disrupted European airspace, sending travelers scrambling to ground transport.  During the disruption, Eurostar ran 70 extra trains and carried 100,000 more passengers than had been scheduled to travel.

Eurostar, operator of high-speed trains that run through the tunnel under the English Channel, has also pointed to the strengthening market for business and tourist markets.  International travelers—specifically American and Australian tourists—have increasingly viewed riding the high speed service as a must on their European vacations, driving international sales revenue 24% higher than the same period last year.

“Whilst our core routes continue to be busy more and more people are opting to travel further afield and explore new destinations by train” said Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive of Eurostar.  “Forward bookings are looking strong and with the increasing appetite for high speed rail travel in Europe, the trend looks set to continue.”

Eurostar has responded to these figures by committing to run an extra 20 trains—four trains every weekend—between London and Paris during the month of August.

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