Durbin Meets with Amtrak Board Nominee Thomas Carper

Press Release

Durbin Meets with Amtrak Board Nominee Thomas Carper

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin today met with former Mayor of Macomb, Illinois, Thomas C. Carper who has been nominated by President Bush to serve on the Amtrak Board of Directors. Recognizing Carper's exceptional work to preserve vital passenger rail service in Illinois, Durbin recommended him to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and to the President earlier this year. Durbin will introduce Carper tomorrow at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on his nomination.

"Tom Carper has years of experience in bringing together business leaders, labor leaders, community leaders, and elected officials," said Durbin. "Given Tom's accomplishments as mayor and regional director for West Central Illinois' economic development plan, I am confident he will work to keep Amtrak on the right track."

Amtrak was established by an act of Congress in 1970 and serves an average 70,000 passengers daily in more than 500 communities across 46 states on nearly 300 daily trains. The Board of Directors sets corporate policy and oversees the management of the company. The board is made up of 7 voting members appointed for five-year terms by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Among the seven members is an ex officio Federal government representative, a position held by the Secretary of Transportation.

As Mayor of Macomb from 1991-2003, Carper led the fight to preserve passenger rail service in the region and State. In 1991 Carper was appointed by the Amtrak Board of Directors to the Amtrak Mayors ' Advisory Council and served as its Chair from 2000 to 2001. After Carper's tenure as mayor, Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich named him the regional director for the West Central region for Opportunity Returns - a regional economic development plan. He graduated from Western Illinois University and served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970 in Thailand and Vietnam. He was a small business owner-operator from 1971 to 1991 when he was first elected Mayor of Macomb.

On October 30, the Senate passed the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007 with Durbin's support, which authorizes Amtrak for six years. Nationally, Amtrak set a new record for ridership this year with 25.8 million passengers - an increase of 1.5 million over fiscal year 2006. In Illinois, an average of 48 Amtrak trains run each day on more than 1,000 miles of track. Amtrak employs more than 2,000 Illinois residents and annually spends $56 million for goods and services in the state. Illinois is the central rail hub of the North American continent, bringing 2.5 million passengers through Amtrak's Midwestern hub in Chicago each year.

Source