The final piece of the local funding puzzle for a second daily train between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago fell into place on June 26 when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a transportation omnibus funding bill that includes the state’s share of non-federal money for the long-planned project.

Michigan was the Midwestern winner in the latest round of federal “State of Good Repair” grants for fiscal year 2020, announced Oct. 28 by the Federal Railroad Administration. The Michigan Department of Transportation won up to $15,570,327 for 11 projects to modify track curves between Ypsilanti to Jackson that, when completed, are expected to provide a 7-minute reduction in trip times on the Wolverine and improve operational reliability and grade crossing safety throughout the Detroit-Chicago corridor.

The multi-state effort to add a second daily train between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and Chicago just got another major boost from the federal government. The Federal Railroad Administration  announced  on Sept. 23, 2020, that the “TCMC” project – also known as the “Second Empire Builder” – has been awarded a $31.8 million Consolidated Railroad Infrastructure and Safety Improvement  (CRISI) grant for final design and construction.

The first of 88 new passenger cars will arrive in the Midwest in August to begin their testing phase. They should be in revenue service on state-supported routes in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin by the end of 2020, Illinois Department of Transportation officials said.

Illinois and Michigan won $19 million in the latest round of Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Program (SOGR) grants, announced in late May by the Federal Railroad Administration. Those grants were two of 12 awarded to projects in nine states, totaling more than $302 million.

The multi-state effort to add a second daily passenger train between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago got a big boost when the Federal Railroad Administration awarded the project a $12.6 million federal grant.

MIPRC states fared well in the latest round of federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grants, announced March 12 by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Among $248.5 million in total grant funds awarded to 27 states, passenger rail-related projects projects in Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin will receive up to $48,795,496.

Kansas state Senator and MIPRC Commissioner Carolyn McGinn hosted the Kansas Legislature’s third annual hearing on passenger rail at the Kansas State Capitol on January 22. Representatives from Amtrak, BNSF, Kansas DOT (KDOT) and MIPRC were invited to address an overflow group of legislators and advocates on the current state of passenger rail development at the federal, state and local levels.

Two Illinois Amtrak station improvement projects are the only Midwestern passenger rail-related winners among $900 million in BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) grants announced on November 12, 2019, by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Fresh from the June announcement that every MIPRC state had won a Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant, the region got more good news in August when the Federal Railroad Administration announced the first “State Of Good Repair” (SOGR) grant awards: three Midwestern states are among the 10 winners.

The Midwest reaped a bountiful harvest last month when the Federal Railroad Administration announced more than $326 million in grant awards to states, localities and railroads for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program.

Capital funding and new service are coming down the tracks for riders of Illinois’ passenger trains in the state’s new six-year, $45 billion capital budget, a.k.a the “Rebuild Illinois” program. That budget, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker on June 28, allocates $33 billion to transportation, including funding to improve existing routes and revive two dormant projects to restore passenger service – between Chicago and the Quad Cities, and Chicago and Rockford.

Illinois’ capital city took a big step toward completing a project that will improve passenger rail schedules on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor.

The program to untangle the national railroad network’s Gordian knot on Chicago’s south side has won a $132 million federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant for the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project (CIP).

Riders of Amtrak’s long-distance Southwest Chief service – especially those in western Kansas – got $16 million worth of good news when the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the TIGER grant program’s latest winners on March 9.

Plans to reconnect the Twin Cities with Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., have cleared environmental reviews and now await funding for final design and construction.

A new schedule took effect for the state-supported Blue Water and Wolverine services starting on January 22, 2018, replacing the one that had been in effect since June 26, 2017,  reflecting significant improvements in running times thanks to upgrades to tracks and other infrastructure geared for 110 miles per hour service in the near future.

Three Midwestern Amtrak stations are among the top 10 for overall station experience in FY 2017, according to an annual Amtrak customer satisfaction survey.

The proposed Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago (TCMC) Intercity Passenger Rail Service project between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago cleared a procedural hurdle to entering the federal passenger rail program with the release of a Purpose and Need Statement , which defines the purpose of the project and the transportation needs addressed by the project, the Minnesota Department of Transportation officially announced on July 25, 2017.

Passenger rail service through Kansas is currently limited to just one daily round-trip train, the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief, which has six stops across Kansas (Lawrence, Topeka, Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City).  But that may change in wake of a June 9th inspection train from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Kansas City, Missouri, following strong ridership on an Amtrak Thruway bus connection that commenced in April of 2016.