Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Rockford Commuter Service Could Serve Huntley, Union, Marengo
With Metra’s outgoing chairman Jeff Ladd suggesting a tax hike to further subsidize Chicagoland’s mass transit operation, Rockford leaders have come up with what may be the perfect solution to bring commuter service to town:
The collar counties now pay ¼ of 1% sales for their Regional Transportation Service. My understanding of the RTA Act is that adjoining counties would have to pass a referendum to impose the same rate in order to obtain commuter service.
One has to hand it to the Rockford folks.
They seem to have found a way to get what Elburn, for example, just got without paying anything but the passengers’ paying fares.
What a deal!
Amtrak would be running the service, but the article refers to it as “Metra service.” State government taxpayers apparently would be picking up the 50% of operating costs not paid by fares, the article says.
If so, it doesn’t exactly sound fair to the collar county taxpayers, does it?
Two routes would be under consideration, one of which would serve Huntley, Union and Marengo.
The Rockford Register-Star reported that 100 people heard Winnebago county chairman Winnebago County Chairman Scott Christiansen back pretty much the old Amtrak route, which would not serve what must be McHenry County’s fastest growing town, Huntley, plus Boone County, but would link DuPage and Kane County suburbs to Rockford’s airport.
Boone County Vice Chairman David Taylor favored the route runs through Huntley, Union and Marengo, then, west through downtown Belvidere past the Chrysler plant and into Rockford. The Winnebago County -vored route misses Boone County completely.
Neither paper indicated anyone from McHenry County testified.
With Congressman Don Manzullo and Senator Dick Durbin making the encouraging noises, I would presume that they think the Federal taxpayers will pay the $89 million for upgrading the track. (That’s less than half the money earmarked to build House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Prairie Pathway.)
In 1974, pro-life Democrat Huntley resident Ron Stroup campaigned in favor of the RTA referendum. Amtrak had a different route to Rockford then. Maybe he could have gotten Huntley commuter service by just lobbying to change Amtrak’s route, rather than trying to impose a gasoline tax on motoring commuters to subsidize those privileged enough to take the train to and from work.
= = = = =
Map showing railroad routes to Rockford is from Google.
Picture is of Route 47 mid-day traffic between Algonquin Road and Downtown Huntley.
Let state government pay the subsidy.That’s the way I read this Chicago Tribune article.
The collar counties now pay ¼ of 1% sales for their Regional Transportation Service. My understanding of the RTA Act is that adjoining counties would have to pass a referendum to impose the same rate in order to obtain commuter service.
One has to hand it to the Rockford folks.
They seem to have found a way to get what Elburn, for example, just got without paying anything but the passengers’ paying fares.
What a deal!
Amtrak would be running the service, but the article refers to it as “Metra service.” State government taxpayers apparently would be picking up the 50% of operating costs not paid by fares, the article says.
If so, it doesn’t exactly sound fair to the collar county taxpayers, does it?
Two routes would be under consideration, one of which would serve Huntley, Union and Marengo. The Rockford Register-Star reported that 100 people heard Winnebago county chairman Winnebago County Chairman Scott Christiansen back pretty much the old Amtrak route, which would not serve what must be McHenry County’s fastest growing town, Huntley, plus Boone County, but would link DuPage and Kane County suburbs to Rockford’s airport.
Boone County Vice Chairman David Taylor favored the route runs through Huntley, Union and Marengo, then, west through downtown Belvidere past the Chrysler plant and into Rockford. The Winnebago County -vored route misses Boone County completely.Neither paper indicated anyone from McHenry County testified.
With Congressman Don Manzullo and Senator Dick Durbin making the encouraging noises, I would presume that they think the Federal taxpayers will pay the $89 million for upgrading the track. (That’s less than half the money earmarked to build House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Prairie Pathway.)
In 1974, pro-life Democrat Huntley resident Ron Stroup campaigned in favor of the RTA referendum. Amtrak had a different route to Rockford then. Maybe he could have gotten Huntley commuter service by just lobbying to change Amtrak’s route, rather than trying to impose a gasoline tax on motoring commuters to subsidize those privileged enough to take the train to and from work.
= = = = =
Map showing railroad routes to Rockford is from Google.
Picture is of Route 47 mid-day traffic between Algonquin Road and Downtown Huntley.
