USDOT press release:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today awarded $71.3 million to the State of Indiana to help alleviate congestion in one of the region’s most delay-prone rail corridors. The Indiana Gateway Project will both relieve congestion and support the development of higher performing intercity passenger rail service in the Midwest.

“The Indiana Gateway project will create jobs and grow our economy over the long-term by moving people and goods more efficiently than ever before,” said Secretary LaHood.  “This project will help eliminate severe chokepoints in the region’s rail network while creating capacity to handle future rail demand as our population grows.”

The project is located on 29.3 miles of track owned by Norfolk Southern Railway between Porter, Indiana, and the Indiana/Illinois state line and at one location on Amtrak’s line. The improvements will include track reconfiguration and track and signal upgrades, all of which will help improve service reliability while creating jobs and relieving congestion.

“No economy can grow faster than its transportation network allows,” said Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo. “This investment will eliminate chokepoints and create an environment where intercity passenger trains and freight service can operate fluidly without prolonged delays.”

More than 90 freight trains and 14 Amtrak intercity passenger trains currently travel the area between the Indiana/Illinois State border and Porter, Indiana, every day.

The completion of this project will significantly strengthen the Midwest Regional Rail Network, which will connect more than 40 cities in the Midwest.   More than 100 million people call the Midwest region home, with the vast majority of residents living within 500 miles of the Chicago rail hub. Using the Gross Domestic Product as a measure, the Great Lakes-Midwest economic region would be the fifth largest economy if it were its own country.

With more than $2.5 billion are already invested in the Midwest since 2009, funding 39 projects in eight states, the Federal Railroad Administration and its state partners are making great progress on High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail projects across the Midwest. Nationwide, more than $12.0 billion has been invested in 153 projects in 32 states, laying the foundation for a 21st century passenger rail network.

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Source: http://www.fra.dot.gov/roa/press_releases/fp_FRA%2025-12.shtml

From The Grand Rapids Press:

Starting next week, Amtrak’s Grand Rapids-to-Chicago line will undergo a scheduling tweak that will see a (slightly) later departure time from Michigan.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari confirmed the Pere Marquette train will depart Grand Rapids at 7:40 a.m. starting Monday, Sept. 17, five minutes later than it does now.

The return train from Chicago will depart at 4:55 p.m. starting next week, 25 minutes earlier than the current 5:20 p.m. train.

Barring delays, the train from Chicago to Grand Rapids would arrive at 9:55 p.m. instead of 10:20 p.m.

The move is meant to give train crews ample rest between trips, Magliari said, as required by federal law. The new schedule will give crews an extra 30 minutes, he said.

“Under the federal laws, if we gave them less rest, they’d have less time to work,” Magliari said.

“The fact is,” he added, “there’s a maximum number of hours they can work continuously, which is 12. If you give them 8 hours of rest, they can work another 12.”

Amtrak this week also announced 11 consecutive months of ridership gains nationwide, a trend also apparent, Magliari said, on the Pere Marquette line.

Between October 2011 and last month, the Pere Marquette line gave 102,276 rides, a nearly 3-percent increase over the same timeframe a year prior, Magliari said.

“We are expecting to see these trends continue through the final month of the year,” he said.

Magliari said he thinks Amtrak’s gains are attributable to growing problems with its main competition: driving and air travel.

“Riderships across the country continues to be strong in large part because of our competition,” Magliari said, pointing to high gas prices and soaring airfare.

Elsewhere in Michigan, Magliari said ridership also increased on Amtrak’s Blue Water Line between Port Huron and Chicago.

That line gave 176,224 rides between October 2011 and August, a 1.3 percent increase.

The Wolverine Line between Pontiac and Chicago gave 447,153 rides, a 5.3-percent decrease, Magliari said.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/09/amtrak_tweaks_grand_rapids-to-.html

From the Northwest Indiana Times:

Railroad and state officials have reached an agreement on a key project that was holding up progress on a Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed Amtrak rail route.

Norfolk Southern and state officials are inking an agreement this week that will secure $71.4 million in federal stimulus funds to pay for eight separate rail projects in Indiana, which should significantly reduce delays on Amtrak trains headed to Michigan, said John Swanson, executive director at the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.

“This will be a major project in Indiana to facilitate high-speed rail through Northwest Indiana,” Swanson said.

The deal on the improvements, called the Indiana Gateway, also was greeted warmly by U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind.

“The Indiana Gateway project will create jobs in the short-term, improve the transport of passengers and cargo in the midterm, and build a foundation for a thriving rail infrastructure and a sound regional economy in the long-term,” Visclosky said.

The Indiana Gateway is one of the last major projects approved for the Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed rail route, which has won almost $400 million in stimulus funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

It is estimated the Indiana Gateway project will create approximately 700 construction jobs and reduce delays in Indiana on the Chicago-to-Detroit route by as much as 64 percent, according to the original grant application submitted by the Indiana Department of Transportation.

The project was first announced by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in January 2010 but has been held up by disagreements between railroads and the government on how best to proceed.

The Indiana Gateway project will include the construction of a siding at Porter Junction, in the Town of Porter, identified by INDOT as one of the most congestion-prone rail junctions in the U.S. Every day 14 Amtrak trains and 87 freight trains merge there in order to proceed into Chicago or eastward to Michigan, Ohio and other points east.

In addition there will be high-speed crossovers, new signals and new tracks added at various locations in Northwest Indiana. There will be about six months of design work followed by 20 months of construction, according to INDOT’s application.

It is estimated the Indiana Gateway project, along with other major improvements in Illinois and Michigan, will shave 30 minutes off a Chicago-to-Detroit Amtrak ride. Trains will operate at speeds of 110 mph along much of the Michigan portion of the route.

State departments of transportation are conducting hearings in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan this week to develop an environmental impact statement for the 300-mile Chicago to Detroit route. The Indiana hearing will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 100 E. Michigan Blvd., Michigan City.

Source: http://www.nwitimes.com/business/transportation/key-nwi-rail-project-back-in-fast-lane/article_c1571fb9-8351-514d-812d-2987e2b29cc5.html