With an appreciative nod to the past, the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission’s 2024 Annual Meeting set forth a busy 2025, from starting the work under the commission’s federal grants to greeting a new Congress, to working on new rolling stock planning with Amtrak and marking the Commission’s upcoming 25th anniversary. All this and more was discussed at MIPRC’s 2024 Annual Meeting, held Nov. 18-20 in St. Paul, Minnesota. A record 79 commissioners, partners and allies attended the meeting, held in St. Paul’s historic Union Depot after most attendees traveled there on Nov. 18 from Chicago or Milwaukee on the six-month-old state-supported Borealis train.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission will receive a federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure & Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant to advance planning work for the long-term development of a regional passenger rail network. In late October, the Federal Railroad Administration announced it will award up to $1.84 million from the CRISI program’s fiscal year 2023-24 funding to “Invest Midwest: The Future of Midwest Passenger Rail-Phase 1” – a MIPRC-led project that will advance and expand the regional network vision proposed by the FRA’s 2021 Midwest Regional Rail Plan (MWRRP).

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC) has been awarded a two-year, up to $300,000 Interstate Rail Compacts (IRC) grant in the inaugural round of funding for the new program, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced on March 14.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC) has submitted two nominees to the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) new Passenger Rail Advisory Committee (PRAC), which will advise the agency on passenger rail service issues.

As the 21st century began, so did Normal, Illinois’ successful plan to make its downtown a vibrant, walkable city center. Key to that vision was the town’s Amtrak station, now served daily by five state-supported Lincoln Service trains connecting to Chicago and St. Louis, and the long-distance Texas Eagle, connecting to Dallas and San Antonio. The opportunity to see how regular, reliable train service can boost economic growth made Normal – which boasts the second-highest ridership of any station in Illinois after Chicago and is home to both Illinois State University and Rivian’s manufacturing plant – a natural host city for MIPRC’s 2023 Annual Meeting.

The Congressionally mandated Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Long-Distance Service Study offers myriad opportunities to strengthen the Midwest’s, as well as the nation’s, passenger rail network, from expanding existing services to restoring routes Amtrak inherited but discontinued, the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC) said in comments to the Federal Railroad Administration.

MIPRC has filed 10 letters of support for state-supported projects with the Federal Railroad Administration to boost Midwestern states’ own submissions to the inaugural funding round of the new federal Corridor Identification & Development Program.

MIPRC on December 1 submitted an application to the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a $5 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) planning grant to further develop the Midwest Regional Rail Plan.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission’s 2022 Annual Meeting capped a busy 13-month period that began with the release of the Federal Railroad Administration’s long-term Midwest Regional Rail Plan and the passage and enactment of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

MIPRC on March 8, 2022, submitted comments on the new federal Corridor Identification and Development Program created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The program creates a new framework to facilitate the development of new, enhanced, and restored intercity passenger rail corridors throughout the country.