Durbin, Duckworth, Quigley Lead 29 Midwest Colleagues In Urging Dot To Support Chicago Hub Improvement Program For Chicago Union Station

Press Release

With the increased funding available through the enactment of the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58), now is the time to improve and expand Midwestern
passenger rail, as regional partners already have committed $218 million to the project. We ask
the Department of Transportation to meet this moment in history by investing in the success of
CUS, which serves 3.3 million Amtrak riders annually, along 16 Amtrak intercity rail lines, and
more than 30 million riders across all rail services.

Many long-planned projects to improve and extend rail lines across other Midwest states
depend on CHIP's improvements to the Chicago area, including projects within the Midwest
Regional Rail Initiative and the Federal Railroad Administration's Midwest Regional Rail Plan.
Examples of efforts across the Midwest that would benefit from CHIP's implementation include:

 Illinois: Elimination of antiquated train maneuvers that will enable travel time reductions of
10-15 minutes between Chicago and Champaign/Carbondale. This change also paves the
way for St. Louis and Texas trains to transition to Metra's Rock Island line, ensuring faster
and more reliable service to Joliet;

 Indiana: Improvements will facilitate the creation of faster service between Chicago and
Indianapolis, while upgrades in southwest Michigan will permit more efficient movement,
and thus expanded service, between northwest Indiana and points in Michigan;

 Michigan: Upgrades and travel time reductions to state-supported services including the
Wolverine (Chicago-Detroit/Pontiac) and Blue Water (Chicago-Port Huron) lines;

 Minnesota: Establishment of Minnesota's new Great River Service between Chicago and
the Twin Cities;

 Missouri: Improvements at CUS will improve the passenger experience of Lincoln Service
riders, thus providing more attractive service to St. Louis, which in turn will feed more
customers to the Missouri River Runner;

 Wisconsin: Expansion of Hiawatha service (Chicago-Milwaukee) to create new corridors to
the Twin Cities via Madison and Eau Claire, and a new service to Green Bay.

CHIP fulfills the Biden Administration's goals to reduce emissions and promote equity,
as it will spur broad-based economic growth across the Midwest. CHIP will allow Amtrak to
upgrade and expand its services to communities and riders who lack frequent and reliable
intercity rail transportation. It will provide code-compliant, accessible platforms in preparation
for the anticipated growth of both intercity and commuter ridership.

The full scope of Amtrak's application, totaling more than $1 billion, proposes several
investments that will address transportation challenges and create a strong foundation for
reducing travel time, expanding service, and meeting the current and future needs of customers
of both Amtrak and its partners. As preliminary engineering and design begin on these projects,
Amtrak will work with both the FRA and all relevant freight railroads to ensure that
improvements benefit all parties. CHIP includes the following components:

Chicago Access

 St. Charles Air Line (SCAL) Connection: Building a direct connection between CUS and
the SCAL (component #1).

 Yard Property: Purchasing and outfitting yard property near CUS (component #2).

CUS

 CUS Mail Platform Reactivation: Reactivating the High-Level Mail Platform at CUS for
passenger use (component #4).

 CUS Platform Capacity Expansion: Making platform and track adjustments (component
#5).

 CUS Trainshed Ventilation: Advancing Amtrak's ability to address the urgent need to
remove failing plenums and to address code related emergency smoke evacuation
standards (component #6).

 CUS Concourse and Mezzanine: Making improvements to the CUS concourse and
mezzanine (component #7).

Michigan

 Niles-Glenwood Double Track: Restoring 16 miles of double-track on the Amtrak-owned
Michigan Line infrastructure between Niles, Michigan and Glenwood Road, Wayne
Township, and Michigan along the Amtrak Wolverine and Blue Water lines (component
#8).

We ask for your full consideration of Amtrak's CHIP application to improve intercity,
commuter, and freight travel, as well as strengthen the long-term sustainability and growth of the
Midwest and the entire nation.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

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Sincerely,

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