From the St. Joseph Herald Palladium

BENTON HARBOR – Momentum is growing to lobby state transportation policy makers for a meeting to resolve the future of Amtrak stops in Bangor, New Buffalo and St. Joseph.

All three stops are served by the Pere Marquette route, whose future has been clouded by a proposed rail service realignment for the Midwest.

The Southwest Michigan Planning Commission’s executive director, K. John Egelhaaf, is among local officials lobbying to meet with the Michigan Department of Transportation, said Nickolas Musson, an associate planner with the commission.

“We’re just trying to establish this dialogue between MDOT and the people in this region because they really need to know what’s going on and understand what’s going on,” he said.

From WSJM 1400 AM & 94.9 FM

Local planning officials are working on a plan to save the Pere Marquette Amtrak line, as documents from the Michigan Department of Transportation indicate that the agency may be planning to phase it out. Executive Director of the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission K- John Egelhaaf says that maps for a project called the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative don’t include the local passenger line:

http://www.wsjm.com/pages/6212740.php?contentType=4&contentId=5471785

From The Windsor Star

The companies behind a $400-million proposal to build a second Detroit River rail tunnel have issued a pre-bid notice — a call for companies to prove qualifications — to conduct the environmental assessment for the project.

Borealis Infrastructure and CP Rail, co-owners of the 100-year-old Windsor-Detroit rail tunnel, plan to build an adjacent tunnel to accommodate larger double-stacked railway cars and possibly high-speed cross-border passenger service.

http://www.windsorstar.com/Rail+tunnel+proposal+moves+closer+reality/2483399/story.html

From The Michigan City News Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY — For the second time in two weeks, an Amtrak train was forced to make a stop in Michigan City.

At about 7:15 p.m. Saturday, officials from a train bound for Detroit called the Michigan City Fire Department and moved the 129 passengers to the front of the train, to get them from the smoke that had erupted in the cafe car.

“There was a fire in an overhead motor of the cafe car,” MCFD Battalion Chief Mike Osborne said.

No one was injured.

Altogether, two engine companies, a ladder truck, a command vehicle and support personnel responded to the call at the Amtrak station, just behind Swingbelly’s restaurant.

Andy Kantola, 21, Kalamazoo, Mich., said he was in the cafe car while the motor was smoking.

“I was about to get some food,” he said and (Amtrak) officials came and told us to move into the front cars. Kantola was planning to travel north to Charlevoix, Mich., from Kalamazoo.

Peggy Eiler, Parma, Mich., had traveled on Amtrak to visit family in Yuma, Ariz.

Standing outside the train dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and a lightweight cardigan, she said she didn’t mind the cold. “It’s warmer than it was when I left home,” she said. After riding a different train from Arizona, she caught the train to Detroit in Chicago and planned to ride to Jackson, Mich.

She said no one on the train seemed worried or frightened. “People just moved to the front cars when they were told to do so.”

On Saturday, Jan. 9, an eastbound Amtrak train hit a car that had landed on the tracks near the U.S. 12 crossing after it apparently slipped on icy roads. No one was injured in the accident and the car lost only a bumper.

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/01/24/news/local/doc4b5bc4a96f2a3110019723.txt