The ''Quad Cities'' is a planned

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

Illinois Service The ''Illinois Service'', branded Amtrak Illinois, comprises three passenger rail routes operated by Amtrak in the American state of Illinois. The ''Illinois Service'' is funded primarily by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). Ch ...

intercity passenger train Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that run services that connect cities over longer distances than commuter or regional trains. There is no precise definition of inter-city rail; its meaning may vary from country ...

that will operate between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and Moline in the US state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. The train will duplicate the route and stations of the ''

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

'' and ''

Illinois Zephyr The ''Illinois Zephyr'' and ''Carl Sandburg'' are a pair of passenger trains operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Quincy, Illinois. As ''Illinois Service'' trains, they are partially funded by the Illinois Department of Transpor ...

'' between Chicago and Wyanet using track owned by

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

. On the Wyanet–Moline segment, which will include a station at Geneseo, the train will use track owned by

Iowa Interstate Railroad The Iowa Interstate Railroad is a Class II regional railroad operating in the central United States. The railroad is owned by Railroad Development Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. History The railroad was formed on November 2, 1984, u ...

Background

Originally, the Rock Island provided passenger service in the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

via the '' Quad Cities Rocket'' train. The railroad initially declined to hand passenger operations over to Amtrak, and service to Chicago continued until December 31, 1978. In 2008,

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Tom Harkin Thomas Richard Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Io ...

and

Chuck Grassley Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Iowa, having held the seat since 1981. In 2022, h ...

of Iowa and

Dick Durbin Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Durbin has served as the Senate De ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

of Illinois sent a letter to Amtrak asking them to begin plans to bring rail service to the Quad Cities. In October 2010, a $230 million federal fund was announced that will bring Amtrak service to the Quad Cities, with a new line running from Moline to Chicago. They had hoped to have the line completed in 2015, and to offer two daily round trips to Chicago. In December 2011, the federal government awarded $177 million in funding for the Amtrak connection. In 2015, Illinois Republican governor Bruce Rauner announced a spending freeze that placed both the proposed train service and the '' Black Hawk'' under review by the

IDOT The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is a state agency in charge of state-maintained public roadways of the U.S. state of Illinois. In addition, IDOT provides funding for rail, public transit and airport projects and administers fuel ...

. After being on hold for over a year, IDOT moved forward with the project in order to prevent losing the $177 million in federal funding for the passenger service. In July 2019, a new transportation bill was passed by the Illinois state legislature, supported by Governor J.B. Pritzker, with $225 million was appropriated to begin this service. In its 2020–2025 service plan, Amtrak forecast that the Chicago–Moline route will begin in fiscal year 2024 and attract 165,600 riders that year.

Route and stops

References

{{Amtrak routes Proposed Amtrak routes Proposed railway lines in Illinois