Letter to Editor: Amtrak proposal is misguided - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Amtrak proposal is misguided

• I am writing to express my disagreement with the proposal to return Amtrak service to downtown Rockford. The politicians are talking about spending millions of dollars to bring what is likely to be one train per day to downtown Rockford. They have not said how much tickets will cost, or how long the travel time will be. Keep in mind that this one train per day will not be a direct train. There will be several stops between Rockford and Chicago.

  Any normal business that was considering such a service would have to conduct market studies, proving the likely consumer demand for such a service at various price points and travel times, and the total cost of providing the service. The politicians have provided none of this information, because they do not have it. If they did, they would never expose it to the public.

  A simple check of existing travel options from Rockford to Chicago provides the following information: Van Galder bus company offers nine direct round trips per day from Rockford to downtown Chicago. Travel time is one hour and 40 minutes, at a cost of $44 for adults and $20 for children. For those who desire even more options, one can travel by bus from Rockford to O’Hare airport, and connect with the El train to downtown. Bus service to and from O’Hare runs hourly all day, and the El runs from O’Hare to downtown every two to 10 minutes. The total cost of this option is a maximum of $47 for adults and $25 for children, and total transit time using this route takes around two to 2.5 hours. How does this compare with the Amtrak alternative? We don’t know, because the politicians aren’t saying.

  Using bus service with or without the El train gives travelers much more flexibility. Imagine shopping in downtown Chicago and missing your one return train for the day. I also cannot imagine myself taking 20 minutes to drive from East Rockford to a downtown train station, and then sitting and waiting to travel back in the same direction on a slow train. The politicians haven’t said how long the transit time will be, but for a non-direct train it will be at least three hours, if not more. You can also bet that the ticket price will be at least as much, if not more than the bus option.

  The Amtrak proposal uses expensive 19th-century technology to solve an inexpensive 21st-century problem. The motives for this are political rather than practical. The recent taxpayer investment in improvements to Interstate 90 make bus and car travel to Chicago better than ever. Transit solutions such as the one proposed are likely to provide mediocre service and become a money pit for taxpayers. My point in writing this is not to promote any particular company’s services, but to illustrate the folly of trying to resurrect antiquated train service that fell out of favor decades ago, for some very good reasons.

  Kurt Harris, Rockford

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  Posted Jan. 12, 2015 @ 4:00 pm