What is "Black Hawk" Amtrak service?
The Black Hawk is an Amtrak train route that will serve northwest Illinois and far eastern Iowa. It will serve downtown Chicago, South Elgin (IL), Genoa (IL), Rockford (IL), Galena (IL), and Dubuque (IA). This will be a "corridor" or "regional" train part of Amtrak's "Illinois Service".
Service is slated to begin in early 2014. Service may start sooner depending on completion of the minor track upgrades and station construction.
Initial funding for the route equipment, upgrades to infrastructure and personnel is coming from the federal government (some of which was rejected by other states), the State of Illinois, Iowa and the towns/regions receiving service. While some of the rail needs minor upgrades, the railway itself already exists and about 99% of the route is owned and maintained by Canadian National (CN) for freight service.
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