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Issue: 1136 Date: 5/31/2012
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聖路易時報首頁電子版
St. Louis Chinese American News electronic page 1High-speed rail work resumes along Amtrak line
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CHATHAM - Construction crews are back for a third, and final, season of improvements on the St. Louis-Chicago rail corridor ahead of the scheduled start this fall of test runs for 110-mph passenger trains.
In the short term, the work means more bus rides for area Amtrak passengers, including those going to and from Springfield.
"This work is similar, but we're working on culverts and drainage improvements, wayside installation and bridge upgrades," Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Kauffman said Tuesday.
Illinois has received about $1.5 billion in federal funding to pay for new track, upgraded passenger cars and engines, stone ballast, bridge and crossing upgrades, culvert and drainage improvements, and signal upgrades along the 284-mile corridor between St. Louis and Chicago.
A test run of 110-mph trains is scheduled for September between Dwight and Pontiac. The current maximum speed on the Amtrak corridor is 79 mph.
The work has skipped Springfield while a study is completed of the best route for added passenger and freight traffic. IDOT is analyzing 11 combinations of Third, 10th and 19th street changes to accommodate the traffic.
City and county officials back consolidation of rail traffic on the 10th Street corridor.
"We're still hoping they'll release (the study) when they said they would, late this month or early June," said city spokesman Ernie Slottag.
The high-speed rail construction will again mean traffic disruptions for communities along the Amtrak corridor.
"They completely tore up our Spruce Street crossing," said Chatham village administrator Del McCord.
The crossing is one of two grade-level crossings in Chatham. Flaggers also have been stationed at the Walnut Street crossing, at times forcing detours to the Plummer Boulevard underpass at the north edge of the village.
An Amtrak notice released Tuesday said passengers on the Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle trains - including the Springfield, Lincoln and Carlinville stations - will be switched to charter buses as needed through June 9.
Specific schedules are posted at the stations and at
http://Amtrak.com . A schedule of rail crossing closings has been posted at
http://www.idothsr.org . (The State Journal-Register) |
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