Amtrak

The new train will be faster while connecting more cities.

Train service from Chicago to St. Louis is going to have schedule changes beginning later this month thanks to increased speeds and decreased travel times.

Dave Dahl -- Illinois Radio Network Fewer of us were using Amtrak in the twelve months ending Sept. 30, compared to the prior fiscal year. Gasoline prices tell part of the story, says rail spokesman Marc Magliari. “There's a modal shift,” Magiliari says, “when gas prices start ticking upward – to the two's, three's, and four's (dollars per gallon) that people look to us as an option...

At least six people were killed late Tuesday when an Amtrak train derailed outside Philadelphia. According to Fox News, emergency officials confirmed that six other people were critically injured and more than 140 others were transported to local hospitals for evaluation or treatment...

In the March edition of ‘Ask the Mayor,’ Larry Morrissey provided a detailed update on where the proposed Amtrak service to Rockford stands. The Mayor told Michael Koolidge that Amtrak representatives don't make the final call on this matter, that it's the call of the General Assembly...

Jim Anderson -- Illinois Radio Network Passenger rail advocates are trying to maintain the state's subsidy for Amtrak. The state is paying $42 million this year to support most of the trains from Carbondale, St. Louis and Quincy to Chicago...

There's a lot happening in Springfield this week as lawmakers attempt a fix for the current fiscal year's budget and conduct hearings on a numbers of issues that impact the 2016 spending plan. State Senator Tim Bivins joined us on the show this week to discuss a number of topics...

Last year when then-Governor Pat Quinn came to Rockford to unveil Amtrak service starting in 2015, we argued on the show that this was another one of Quinn's empty campaign promises that would be unlikely to come true. That the announcement was an attempt to curry favor with voters in the midst of a heated campaign for re-election...

Amid all the talk about the possibility of Amtrak service coming to Rockford, on our show we've tried to focus on some of the raw data and raw numbers put forward in feasibility studies on the project. If money were no object and we were projected to run budget surpluses for years to come this would be a slam-dunk...

CHICAGO (AP) — One northeastern Illinois community hasn't given up its dream of becoming an Amtrak stop. The DeKalb Daily Chronicle cites leaders in Genoa as holding out hope despite losing some battles in the long fight to be selected as a stop for passenger-train service...