Illinois senators meet with CN CEO about Chicago Hub project

By David Lassen | March 20, 2024

   

Legislators describe meeting to advance passenger improvements as ‘productive’

Amtrak’s California Zephyr departs Chicago Union Station on 

Dec. 2, 2023.

 Illinois senators

 met with Canadian National’s CEO on Tuesday regarding plans to 

modernize Union Station 

and passenger routes. David Lassen

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth (both D-Ill.) met with Canadian National Railway CEO Tracy Robinson on Tuesday to discuss the railroad’s involvement in the Chicago Hub Improvement Program, the plan to modernize Chicago Union Station and rail routes leading to the station.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) also participated in the meeting by phone.

Durbin, in a press release, described the meeting as “productive,” saying, “we want all stakeholders, including CN, to share the same vision of modernizing Midwest rail for the future, 

though improvements to Chicago Union Station and its connectivity.” Said Duckworth, 

“To move forward with the improvements needed at Chicago’s Union Station that will improve rail service and reliability across the Midwest, it’s critical for all parties to work together. …  I’ll keep pushing for more funding and to move this forward, because this critical project isn’t just beneficial for Chicago and Illinois, it’s also a win for the Midwest and a win for our entire country.”

According to the press release, CN has been closely engaged in the project and Robinson expressed her willingness to help it advance.

The Hub program is a more than $1.1 billion plan that would involve track realignment on Chicago’s south side and infrastructure improvements near Dowagiac, Mich., as well as improvements at Union Station. Amtrak and its partners have made unsuccessful bids for major federal funding each of the last two years. They sought more than $250 million from the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (or Mega) Program in 2022, and an $872.8 million Federal-State Partnership grant last year [see “Chicago Hub project vies for big chunk of federal grant money,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 3, 2023].

Union Station did receive $93.6 million in Federal-State Partnership money for station platform and ventilation-system improvements, as well as a project to repurpose the station’s mail platform, out of use since 2005, to be repurposed for passenger use [see “Chicago Union Station to receive more than $93 million …,” News Wire, Dec. 6, 2023].