Regarding the 2015 start of Amtrk Blackhawk service through Union IL. Not that there was much of any near future hope for a stop anyway, whatever there was is gone now.
39 days after swearing in with his left hand, IL Gov. Bruce Rauner is shutting down any progress on proposed Amtrak projects for Rockford, Dubuque, Huntley, and The Quad Cities.

http://wqad.com/2015/01/26/gov-rauners- ... k-project/

http://abc7chicago.com/travel/plan-for- ... ld/509282/

Illinois is in deep financial trouble. Its good to see the new governor trying to address the problems facing the state.

Quinn was doing one heckuvalot better job than who he replaced, sorry he didnt win the job back, probably the echoes of bad governors.

I think the towns are going to complain, if this is the case Rauner may not be any differrent that the Wisconsin governor. If you put money first you put the people on the back seat, and thats pure wrong. You have a job to the people. I don't know Illinois money issues, they are not NOT without money, things like this comes down to more politicing. But its issues like this that you see re-privatizing passenger rail service somehow. But when railroads sucked off the passenger service, and now the government wants to suck off on the passenger service, who gets the suck-off...the people. Go ask the North Shore riders.

Illinois IS without money. It is broke beyond broke and is in danger of defaulting on some of its bonds. The huge tax increases Quinn but in place did nothing more that speed up the rate at which companies and higher tax paying individuals are leaving the state. At some point public sector pensions will have to be restructured as there is not enough money to pay what was promised for an ever growing number of public employees. When that day comes it will be hard to justify new rail service when that money would otherwise go to retiree pensions and health benefits.

The next few years will be focus and justifying and saving existing services. Some current services are in danger of service reductions before you can even start to worry about new services.

Just how is the state, or any other entity, supposed to pay for these services? Will there be enough recovery from the farebox to cover these costs?

In Maryland, we just got rid of a spend, spend, spend, governor and now the new guy coming in has to figure out a way to pay for all of his spending without taxing the remaining citizens to death. We have had a mass exodus of higher-earning individuals moving to adjacent lower-tax states because of this. Those who can afford to relocate, have relocated. The volume of rush-hour traffic entering the state in the morning, and then leaving the state in the evening rush-hour, is painful evidence of this. --- Ray

This fellow denizen of the People's Democratic Republic of Maryland fixed that for you......

And the subject should be "Forget expanded METRA service serving the IRM's community at taxpayer expense for the time being". There's certainly nothing preventing the Museum or a private operator from trying to instigate a privately-run passenger service, either by train or by connecting bus/whatever to METRA stations.......

And, you know, the Strasburg RR and RR Museum of Pa. have managed to do quite well in spite of a continued lack over decades now of connecting service from either Amtrak or SEPTA at Leaman Place Junction....

Really trying to steer clear of politics here; all I can say is I'm happy that a few more of my tax dollars won't be going down that particular drain.

The project had absolutely NO justification, public transportation to IRM notwithstanding (and it wouldn't have been helpful to the museum anyway, not a snowball's chance in hell that a stop would have been established in Union.)

When IRM will receive public transportation will be when Metra extends service to Huntley, where there is an economic case to be made. This unfortunately leaves the service one town short of the Museum, and on the wrong side of the dreaded "missing bridge". Best thing IRM could do right now is buy up a long, skinny strip of land suitable for a train layover yard somewhere west of Huntley, and closer to the IRM campus. This could be justified as part of IRM's "buffer lands" program, and would be the only parcel they stand a chance of making a profit on. What better land use to buffer the museum campus from development than a train yard? Then, when Metra finally decides to extend to Huntley. IRM would have some influence on the location of the layover yard, and hopefully entice Metra to come out a couple miles further west, where they would be adjacent to active IRM track.

Out in Southern California, Orange Empire is looking forward to having a platform adjacent to the new Metrolink stop in downtown Perris (Metrolink is the "brand name" for the Southern California Regional Railway Administration, which runs an extensive diesel-powered suburban railway service). The catch is that for the first few years at least, service to Perris will probably be weekdays only, while most railway museum activities are on Saturday and Sunday.

Well that's a dang shame. As a Marylander myself, I see your point. The Amtrak service is nonexistent in the D.C area. Most of it is run by MARC, and they connect to all the cities, thanks to the B&O. Back on topic, the Amtrak service was to make it easier to get to the Quad cities without having to pay for gas. Those were the good old days, the president should look at the prosperity of the railroad back in the 20's and 30's. In fact, the railroads helped the U.S. survive the depression. The country would be like Afghanistan right now without the railroads. Unfortunately, some people do not see the value the railroads brought to our country. These people need to change their ideas

This thread is contributing nothing towards the purposes of RyPN and is rapidly decaying into a political free for all. I locked it briefly and am now moving it, unlocked to Railfanning.

For about 18 years we had a local transit bus stop in the parking lot at National Capital Trolley Museum, connecting with two stations on the red line of the DC Metro system. While it was novel to offer "connecting service" between the bus and the end of the demonstration railway, we did not see frequent use of this service by patrons - it was almost nil. We did provide a public service by having an informal neighborhood park and ride drop off. However the only crush load we had was for the 1992 ARM convention when we gave participants bus tokens to commute between the hotel and the Museum, saving the cost of hiring charter buses.

Once the Glenmont Station opened the bus was extended from the Museum to that station, which required an additional bus to maintain headway. It was at that time that the County transit folks counted the fares vs costs and discontinued our bus stop.

As far as relevance to METRA and IRM, the point is the cost benefit is likely not there for either IRM or METRA.

Wesley

Seems like every time I post something a little off topic, even though everyone else before me is more off topic than I am, Steaminfo is there. I'm telling you he's like a god