$32 Million From State Capital Program Going Toward Joliet Station

JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) - Gov. Pat Quinn said this week that $32 million from the Illinois Jobs Now capital program will help construct a new multi-modal transportation station in downtown Joliet.

The new station will separate passenger and freight traffic, eliminating the need for passengers to cross working freight tracks. It will also include pedestrian tunnels to connect Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Union Pacific and Rock Island District line tracks to Pace bus service, intercity bus lines and other forms of ground transportation.

"We understand that we have to have balanced transportation in Illinois," Quinn told a crowd of Joliet officials, local politicians and union representatives in announcing the grant Thursday. "We believe passenger rail is very important. It's going back to the future into the 21st Century."

The $42 million project is also receiving $7.5 million in funding from the City of Joliet and $2.2 million from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

The state capital program money amounts to the biggest grant ever received by the City of Joliet.

Quinn predicts it will create 650 jobs.
The governor was surrounded by fellow Democrats seeking re-election and the announcement had definite political overtones with the election Tuesday. But Joliet officials were glad to get the money for a project that was dependent on outside funding.

"Welcome to the first stop on the high-speed rail line," Joliet city Manager Thomas Thanas said to applause from the audience at Joliet's Union Station Thursday.

Thanas and other city officials have said for months that the project makes sense as the first stop outside of Chicago for the future high-speed rail line going to St. Louis.

Even so, Thanas typically introduced presentations on the project by asking his audiences to allow him to dream as he was aware of the need for outside funding to make it possible. Two attempts to get federal funding failed, and the most recent rejection came earlier this week.

The word came Wednesday morning that the state would provide the money that Joliet was seeking from the federal government and "was a total surprise to us," Thanas said.

"It's the largest grant that the city has ever received," he said.

Engineering on the project could begin now, he said. Parking and some rail improvements could be in place next year. Construction on the new station itself probably would begin in 2012 and be completed in 2013, Thanas said.

The Joliet Herald-News contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire

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