SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A bill introduced in the Illinois legislature would establish “aspirational service frequencies” of every four hours or less on 18 regional or long-distance passenger routes radiating from Chicago.
HB4279, the Passenger Rail Planning Act, was introduced in January by state Reps. Rita Mayfield (D-Waukegan) and Kam Buckner (D-Chicago). It does not include funding for expanded service or infrastructure, but seeks to define the plan for more frequent operations.
Among other aspects, the bill also require the state’s Department of Transportation to detail progress toward those goals when it updates state rail and transportation improvement plans, and gives the DOT the ability to nominate corridors for the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program.
“This isn’t about bringing us forward,” Mayfield told the Our Quad Cities news site. “It’s about bringing us back to where we were. Passenger rail used to be the centerpiece for transportation across the country, and it’s time we recognized the importance and dependability once again.”
The bill calls for hourly service between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. on 11 routes including Chicago-Milwaukee, Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City, Chicago-Rockford, and Chicago-Champaign, as well as such long-distance routes as Chicago-Detroit-Toronto and Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati. It calls for every-two-hour service on three other routes, including Chicago-Moline and Chicago-Peoria, and every-four-hour operations on four more lines.
The full text of the bill is available here. It is currently assigned to the House Transportation Committee.
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