MIPRC Chair Bob Guy offered brief testimony in support of the Federal Railroad Administration’s proposed notice of proposed rulemaking on Metrics and Minimum Standards for Intercity Passenger Rail Service during the agency’s April 30 telephonic public hearing.

The efforts of MIPRC  and other passenger rail advocates to support Amtrak’s request for $1 billion in emergency funding  for this fiscal year – including money to offset state losses – paid off late last month when Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the latest COVID-19 relief/stimulus bill.

MIPRC today sent a letter to Midwestern members of Congress in support of Amtrak’s request for $1 billion in emergency funding  for this fiscal year – including $200 million to offset state losses – and include it in the latest COVID-19 relief/stimulus bill currently being negotiated.

One key to successful passenger rail service is reliable schedules giving travelers a certain – or near-certain – expectation that trains arrive at or leave the station when the timetable says they will.

The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission has released a first-ever video explaining our states' vision to protect and expand passenger rail service in the Midwest.

Passenger rail ridership in the Midwest maintained strong overall growth over the decade from federal fiscal years 2009 to 2019, according to MIPRC’s annual evaluation of Amtrak data. Ridership on state-supported corridor services rose 14 percent over the 10 years from Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2009 to FFY 2019, while ridership on the region’s long-distance trains rose five percent in the same period.

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.

UPDATE (Sept. 15, 2017): The second paragraph of this post has been updated to reflect more accurate information about the Chargers' rollout.

Your eyes are not deceiving you, those are the long-anticipated Siemens Charger locomotives zipping along Amtrak’s Midwest state-supported routes.

MIPRC commissioners met with 49 Midwestern Members of Congress and/or their staff during individual office visits in Washington, D.C. on May 23 to stress the importance of maintaining a strong federal/state partnership for passenger rail development. Commissioners also illuminated the growing demand for regional passenger rail in the Midwest, along with recent developments in track and equipment upgrades.

(UPDATE, April 24, 2017): The Missouri Department of Transportation will give the Charger a test run along the state-supported Missouri River Runner route between St. Louis and Kansas City on April 25-26. The new locomotives are expected to go into revenue service on the route later this year.

When the Trump Administration released its budget outline last month, it proposed eliminating funding for all of Amtrak’s long-distance trains for Fiscal Year 2018, and cutting $499 million for the popular TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant program immediately as part of the budget deal being negotiated now for the remainder of the current fiscal year.