The ''Quad Cities'' is a planned

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

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) and f ...

intercity passenger train Inter-city rail services are Express train, express trains that run services that connect cities over longer distances than Commuter rail, commuter or Regional rail, regional trains. They include rail services that are neither short-distance co ...

that will operate between

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and Moline in the US state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. 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 w ...

'' 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 Transport ...

'' between Chicago and Wyanet using track owned by

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

. 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 railroad, 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 N ...

History

Originally, the

Rock Island Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

provided passenger service in the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...

via the ''

Quad Cities Rocket The ''Quad Cities Rocket'' was a named passenger train of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. It operated on a route between Chicago and Rock Island, Illinois. It was a remnant of one of the Rock Island's premier trains, the '' Rocky ...

'' 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 consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

Tom Harkin Thomas Richard Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Pa ...

and

Chuck Grassley Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate since 2025, a role he also held from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Re ...

of Iowa and

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

and

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

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 Bruce Vincent Rauner (; born February 18, 1956) is an American businessman, venture capitalist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he had a decades-long career in inves ...

announced a spending freeze that placed both the proposed train service and the '' Black Hawk'' to Dubuque, Iowa, under review by the

Illinois Department of Transportation 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 f ...

(IDOT). 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. In February 2023, State Senator Mike Halpin, State Representative Gregg Johnson, and Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati asked IDOT and Amtrak to request intervention from the

Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is an independent federal agency that serves as an adjudicatory board. The board was created in 1996 following the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and absorbed regula ...

against the

for holding up the project. In December 2023, the

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce railroa ...

accepted an application by IDOT to enter the Chicago–Moline route into its

Corridor Identification and Development Program The Corridor Identification and Development Program, abbreviated as the Corridor ID Program, is a comprehensive planning program for inter-city passenger rail projects in the United States administered by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ...

. The program grants $500,000 toward service planning and prioritizes the route for future federal funding.

Stations

The entire route is in Illinois.

References

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