Analysis
Sixteen years later, the $230 million Chicago-to-Quad Cities Amtrak service still hasn't started
Announced October 25, 2010 with $230,000,000 in federal funding and a promised 2015 start, Chicago-to-Moline Amtrak service is still not running. BNSF-owned-track improvements and the Moline station are complete, but the Wyanet-Moline segment on Iowa Interstate Railroad-owned track only reached a formal preliminary-engineering agreement among IAIS, IDOT, BNSF, and Amtrak on September 30, 2024, and is now under FRA review. The current target is 2027 — and the federal funding underpinning the remaining work was set to expire July 31, 2026, with lawmakers publicly calling for an extension.