Rail service from Moline to Chicago? Why?

For years they have been floating rail service from the Illinois Quad Cities to Chicago Illinois which last ran in 1978.

Having grown up in South Suburban Chicago with relatives in the North side of Chicago, we never had a method of getting from our house to our relative’s house without using an automobile. Yes, there was sort of a bus which connected to a Chicago bus, but that barely ran. The time it took to get from the South to North was far more than the hour it took to drive. As a family of five, the fares it took for a non car trip was quite pricey. And since we used the car my father used to get to and from two jobs, the base cost of the trip was already in place.

The City of Chicago had a fairly robust public transit system that include buses and the Elevated. Getting there from the suburbs was different. The demand was not there as the suburbs were not designed for it. There are some train lines that go from certain suburbs to downtown, which have historical beginnings, with a few stops in between, but those trains are designed just for that, to go downtown.

In other words, as these systems are controlled by the government, the government then controls how you travel.

The City of Chicago has not been able to fund their public transportation systems with their own tax and fare systems. Therefore as Chicago always does, they look elsewhere for funding. They already sold the Skyway (a tollway) and their parking meters and spent that money. So once again Chicago has a friendly democrat in not only the governor’s office but in both legislative branches.

But they need more than just Chicago votes for this one. They need to strong arm legislative votes outside their districts.

Welcome representatives from Rock Island County. Convince them that Rock Island County needs something, something perhaps glamorous. Here we come, Train Service from Moline to Chicago. Yes, a recreation of the old Rock Island Lines. $425 million to supposedly build this. (Even the reported numbers vary between $425 and$475 million.) Currently no commitments from any of the freight train lines to upgrade their tracks to passenger quality standards, but it makes a good press release.

Want to go to downtown Chicago and not drive? Bus service already exists from private carriers. Looking online there are other services that can be contracted, both ground and air.

But why the idea of a train service form Moline, IL to Chicago? You end up at the downtown location and maybe one or two others, but nothing in between. There was a time that train travel was the technology. The rails were much more secure and stable than the dirt roads. In Illinois there were the short line railroads such as the Hooppole, Tampico and Yorktown line. There was also the Bimhampton to Amboy run. There were others also.

But once roads were made better and more interconnecting this changes. The idea that you could go straight from Hooppole to Tampico and not wait out a stop. You could go from Geneseo to Dixon straight, and pick up produce at the farm along the way. Roadside produce markets flourished. The idea that you had to go to the big city and/or wait numerous stops in between changed life. People could live outside the city limits. Where as mansions were right next to the business districts and the lower paid workers came form a slight distance, now the mansions were made away and the regular guy could live close to work… if so chosen.

Freedom and choice. That is what roads and rubber tire vehicles have made for the American public.

So why is there a push to use an antiquated style of transportation for Moline Illinois, or for that matter Rock Island County?

Two reasons.

First, Rock Island Country was once a very big railroad center. But as transportation technology changed the Rock Island railroad as it was all but disappeared for passenger service.

There is a romance to the days of passenger railroad. Railroad is the hub that ties the suburbs to downtown Chicago. Suburbs that also include towns in Indiana and Wisconsin. But even with the current infrastructure people find it is faster to get to the other locations by taking their cars. No matter how hard central planners try, there is a limit to their skills and visions because there is a limit to solutions made using nineteenth century technologies.

So is extending logical thought there is only one reason to float $475 million to the Quad Cities as part of the $1.5 statewide transit bill?

Second, deflection. Moline, which is a big out state Democrat conclave is being used to deflect the fact that the Democrat controlled State of Illinois legislature and Democrat Chicago based Governor Pritzker are bailing out the mis-funded Chicago area.

The numbers did not work in 1978 when the last run between the Quad Cities and Chicago ran. This will be an attack on businesses that have filled the void after the last train left the station.

And all for politics. How much will this cost the taxpayer in the long run?

Rush Limbaugh once described how certain roads and bridges got built. A vote was needed in a legislative body; federal, state, county, township, city. When one legislator wants to do something they offer something to another legislator. In other words, things that don’t make sense become a reality.