Illinois to Ask LaHood for $300 Million

Illinois will ask Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to award $300 million to a multi-year project to untangle its congested freight and passenger rail lines, under a $1.5 billion discretionary funding account LaHood will allocate from the Recovery Act.

If successful, that would be the largest piece of federal funding yet directed to the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency program, or CREATE, which is a major national priority for the freight transportation industry.

George Weber, bureau chief for railroads at the Illinois Department of Transportation, said the state will ask for the $300 million for CREATE in a grant application due Sept. 15, on top of a $140 million request Illinois submitted Aug. 24 for a rail-bridge “flyover” project under the CREATE program to separate freight from commuter tracks.

That flyover grant submission was part of $550 million in all that Illinois is seeking in first-round stimulus funds for passenger rail development. The next CREATE request would be under what are called TIGER grants for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.

While other types of transportation spending are specified in the Recovery Act, LaHood has broad power to allocate $1.5 billion for projects he deems necessary. He has said some of that money will go to seaport needs, which were not specifically included in other accounts.

But CREATE’s backers say they have an ambitious program under way that would not only untangle congested tracks and roads throughout Chicago but would also speed train movements throughout the continent by removing a major bottleneck.

This is their best chance in years to give CREATE a booster shot of federal dollars, to help fund what backers say is a package of 78 construction projects estimated to cost over $3 billion.

The program was unveiled in 2003 by public agencies and private railroads. The carriers kicked in $100 million to get it going. In 2006 a multi-year transportation bill pledged another $100 million, which was much less than proponents hoped for. Chicago pledged $30 million the next year.

Since then, Canadian National Railway decided to shed its downtown congestion by buying a short line around the city; this year it has moved a few trains onto its Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway through the suburbs. CREATE officials said that allows them to shave about $70 million from their previous construction plans.

Illinois in July approved $322 million in state funding, but until more federal money pours in CREATE lists more than $2.5 billion in unfunded projects.