CHICAGO (AP) — The next phase of construction on a high-speed rail route between Chicago and St. Louis will begin next month, a high-stakes transportation project similar to those that other states have rebuffed, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced Tuesday.
"Illinois has always been a strong railroad
state and we always will be," Quinn said at an Amtrak rail yard near
downtown Chicago.
Quinn and Durbin took swipes at other states for
turning back money for high-speed rail, including Florida, which rejected $2.4
billion that had been earmarked for rail projects in that state because new
Republican Gov. Rick Scott was worried taxpayers could get socked with the bill
for any overruns and operating subsidies. Illinois has said it will try to get
a part any money that other states return.
"The governors of these other states that have
given up their money can stand by and wave at our trains when they go by. We're
going to move people, we're going to freight, we're going to set a standard for
America. It starts right here in Chicago," Durbin said.
But not everybody in Illinois is gung-ho about fast
trains. Freshman Congressman Joe Walsh said the government can't afford to
spend the money and he doubted their cost effectiveness because Americans love
their cars. He said governors like Scott in Florida had the right idea by
giving up federal money for rail projects.
"I respect the governors who have done that,
that clearly is not what Pat Quinn is about," Walsh, whose district is in
northern Illinois.
Illinois' other senator, Republican U.S. Mark Kirk,
supports high speed rail including federal funding and believes it should be a
private-public partnership so that trains move with the speed and reliability
to serve consumers who would otherwise would fly, Kirk spokesman Lance Trover
said.
When high-speed trains are eventually traveling up
to 110 mph, the trip between St. Louis and Chicago could be cut by 90minutes to
less than four hours.
Illinois has been awarded $1.2 billion in federal
money to expand passenger rail and the state has promised to kick in another
$42 million. Last year, Quinn and Durbin debuted the first $98 million in
upgrades to a 90-mile stretch of track from Alton, just northeast of St. Louis,
to Lincoln for the high-speed route.
The latest $685 million section of the construction
project is scheduled to start April 5 and includes building new rail track
using concrete ties between Dwight and Lincoln and between Alton and the
Mississippi River. A modernized signal system will also be installed between
Dwight and Alton, Quinn's office said. Officials estimate the work would create
more than 6,000 direct and indirect jobs, such as construction and
manufacturing work. Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Guy
Tridgell said job numbers are typically devised using formulas based on the
amount of money being spent on a project.
Trains traveling at 110 mph on the 284-mile
Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor could debut between Dwight and Pontiac as early
as next year, Quinn's office said. Upgrades to the Dwight-Alton portion of the
corridor are expected to be finished by 2014.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
