As it is Peoria is the largest city without direct train service to Chicago. Does anyone know what the condition is of the tracks between Chicago and Peoria? Or would major work have to be done on the tracks?
If so, Peoria would still be behind Bloomington as Amtrak is doing major upgrades between Joliet and St. Louis in preparation for the high speed rail which will cut down on travel time.
The high speed hourly service in the NE corridor is the reason Amtrak has tremendously increased passenger numbers since 9-11 much to the dismay of the airlines.
@billybob:
The last two rail passenger routes to be used for Peoria-Chicago rail passenger service are intact, but segments are maintained for freight-only operations. Considerable sums would be required to bring them up to conventional Amtrak standards (79mph, though 59mph may be acceptable in some cases).
Amtrak's PRAIRIE MARKSMAN used the TP&W between East Peoria and Chenoa. North of there, it used a line that is now owned by Union Pacific (up to Joliet) and Canadian National (Joliet to Chicago). At the time, the TP&W was good for 49mph for freight trains and 59mph for passenger trains. Today, that is 25mph and 40mph, respectively, though new parent Genesee & Wyoming Inc. has been replacing crossties and pouring ballast to upgrade the TP&W all the way into Indiana.
The Rock Island's PEORIA ROCKET ran via Chillicothe, Henry, Bureau, Peru, LaSalle, Ottawa and Joliet. Control or ownership of this route is now divided between four railroads: Tazewell & Peoria RR (five miles in Peoria), the Iowa Interstate RR (Peoria-Henry; subleases Henry to Utica from CSX Transportation); CSX Transportation (Utica-Joliet; leased from International Mining Corp.) and METRA (Joliet-Chicago). The Iowa Interstate has trackage rights over CSXT and METRA to reach its Blue Island yard.
Trackage in Peoria from the riverfront to the Water Works is in excellent shape but trains move at 10mph due to yard limits restrictions (a good idea with heavy urbanization and grade crossings). The Iowa Interstate is good enough for 25mph up to Bureau Jct. Bureau Jct. to Joliet is good for 49mph (freight trains are probably limited to 40) and METRA trackage is good for 79mph.
Chicago and Peoria are relatively close, so 110mph speeds are not necessary. If Amtrak ran two daily roundtrips with one-way travel times of no more than 3.5 hours, and a centralized multi-modal depot were developed in downtown Peoria (using the Rock Island route) or East Peoria (using the TP&W route) then I think the service would be successful. Cost recovery would be high.
