A long-running effort to restore passenger rail service between Chicago and the Quad Cities — including a planned stop in Geneseo — has cleared an important federal funding hurdle.
The Federal Railroad Administration has approved an extension of the project's existing federal grant, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen announced Sept. 1.
The decision allows the Illinois Department of Transportation to continue using remaining money from the original $177 million federal award secured for the project in 2010. Without an extension, the remaining federal funding had been facing an expiration deadline this summer.
For Geneseo, the announcement resolves one of the key uncertainties surrounding the project when The Geneseo Current last reported on it in July.
The Funding Question Has Been Answered
During a July presentation to the Geneseo City Council, Bi-State Regional Commission Executive Director Denise Bulat explained that IDOT was waiting for the Federal Railroad Administration to extend the federal grant.
At the time, approximately $78 million was reported to remain from the original federal award.
The extension has now been approved.
Durbin, Duckworth and Sorensen had urged U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FRA Administrator David Fink to approve the request, arguing that Illinois had already made substantial additional investments in the project and that allowing the federal money to expire could further delay passenger rail service.
The lawmakers' announcement did not provide the new expiration date for the grant.
What This Means — And What It Doesn't
The extension is significant because it keeps existing federal dollars available for the project. It is not, however, an announcement that construction is complete or that passenger service has a new launch date.
Illinois has committed hundreds of millions of dollars toward the route in addition to the original federal funding, but infrastructure work and agreements involving the railroads and state remain part of the process.
The Current took a deeper look at the project's status in July, including the proposed Geneseo station, the route through Henry County, funding, remaining infrastructure work and the project's long history of delays.
The current plan calls for passenger trains to travel between Chicago and Moline, using BNSF Railway and Iowa Interstate Railroad tracks and passing through Geneseo. Two daily round trips have previously been proposed.
Geneseo has also acquired property for a future passenger station, although construction has not begun.
What Happens Next?
The federal decision shifts attention back to IDOT and what remains to be completed before passenger service can begin.
That includes several questions that were difficult to answer while the federal extension itself remained unresolved.
Among them: What is the project's updated construction schedule? What railroad agreements remain outstanding? When will work begin on the Geneseo station? And, perhaps most importantly for residents, when could passengers realistically board a train in Geneseo for Chicago?
There is still no confirmed service-start date.
The extension does, however, remove a funding deadline that had become an immediate concern for the project.
For a project that has been discussed in Geneseo for nearly two decades, that distinction matters: passenger rail isn't here yet, but one of the obstacles standing in its way has now been removed.