The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission combined its annual meeting and visit to Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., this October to amplify the region’s voice as Congress begins discussing renewal of the law that sets federal policy and authorizes spending on surface transportation (the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation [FAST] Act of 2015, which expires in 2020).
 

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission on April 26 submitted written  “outside witness testimony” to the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies regarding appropriations to the U.S. Department of Transportation and to Amtrak for Federal Fiscal Year 2020.

Ridership and ticket revenue on state-supported passenger trains in the Midwest enjoyed robust growth over the 10 years from Fiscal Year 2008 to FY 2018, according to an analysis by the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission’s 2018 annual meeting convened in Milwaukee on October 3-5 to review developments since the 2017 annual meeting and lay the groundwork for what promises to be a busy 2019.

There is more to Amtrak than the Northeast Corridor, and good things are happening in the Midwest thanks to sustained federal investment in regional passenger rail. That was the message delivered last month when MIPRC commissioners and partners visited Washington, D.C., to meet with Midwestern members of Congress and federal officials.

Ridership on both state-supported and long-distance routes in the Midwest grew on almost every route in the 10 years from Fiscal Year 2007 to FY 2017.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission last month endorsed the Missouri Department of Transportation’s application for a $73.1 million federal INFRA (Infrastructure For Rebuilding America) grant to help replace the 127-year-old Merchants Bridge spanning the Mississippi River between Venice, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.

Siemens will build 137 new, single-level passenger cars for California and some of the Midwest’s state-supported routes, replacing a bi-level design that failed federally-mandated crash tests, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announced on November 8.

On Nov. 2, 2017, the Illinois Department of Transportation – along with the Chicago Department of Transportation, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways, and the region’s freight railroads – applied on behalf of CREATE for a $160 million Infrastructure For Rebuilding America (INFRA) discretionary grant to help unplug one of the nation’s most frustrating rail bottlenecks: the 75th Street Corridor on Chicago’s south side.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission’s annual meeting came to Wichita, Kansas, for 2017; perhaps an odd choice if you consider only that the city – 50th largest in the country, 10th largest in the Midwest, whose population exceeds Cleveland, Ohio – doesn’t currently have passenger rail service. But MIPRC’s presence there on Oct. 9-11, and its emphasis on the importance of the regional passenger rail network and regional connectivity, may help change that.