Genoa pushing for Amtrak project change | Daily Chronicle

GENOA – Genoa Mayor Mark Vicary hopes persistence will convince state leaders to change plans for an Amtrak passenger rail service so a stop is built in Genoa.

Vicary sent a letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner and his staff last week asking them to cancel the project and review an alternate route between Rockford and Chicago that includes stops in Genoa and Freeport. Vicary says choosing that route would save the state millions.

Vicary said a Rauner staffer replied, suggesting he set up a meeting with Brian Oszakiewski, Rauner’s infrastructure policy adviser.

“It’s just a refreshing change that we’ve got someone who cares enough to actually review, to make a thorough analysis instead of just relying on the political process,” Vicary said.

Meanwhile, plans to extend Amtrak service from Chicago to Rockford are on hold, along with all other major projects from the Illinois Department of Transportation, department spokesman Guy Tridgell said.

Tridgell declined to elaborate on how long state leaders would take to review projects or if they would be open to changes, but at least one of the towns already has spent tens of thousands of dollars planning to build an Amtrak station there.

Under the agreement announced in April with the Union Pacific Railroad, Amtrak would offer a single round-trip service daily between Rockford and Chicago by the end of this year, Tridgell said.

There would be stops in Elgin, Huntley and Belvidere, and a second daily round-trip option would be added in 2016 when improvements are complete.

The service originally was planned to run on Canadian National Railway tracks, but after years of failed negotiations with the Montreal-based company, officials were able to finalize an agreement last year to switch to a new route that used tracks owned by Metra and the Union Pacific Railroad.

But Vicary questions whether then-Gov. Pat Quinn made the $233 million decision with the state’s budget constraints in mind.

“This project was not thoroughly negotiated for the best interests of the taxpayers and envisioned with the original $60 million route based on a recent state consultant study,” Vicary wrote in his letter to Rauner. “Instead, former Gov. Quinn’s impulsive blunder is now a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar boondoggle.”

Meanwhile, Huntley village leaders believe the project – as presently planned – ultimately will move forward, Huntley Village Manager Dave Johnson said.

He plans to check with state officials in a week for an update on the project’s review

Johnson estimated the village[of Huntley] has spent $50,000 of the $400,000 budgeted for project engineering plans so far.

“It’s a significant part of the village of Huntley moving forward with our downtown renovation project,” Johnson said. “It’s an important part of our community, as well.”

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