INDIANA — A collision between a vehicle and an Amtrak train bound for Grand Rapids caused nearly a one-hour delay for passengers Sunday evening, but no one on the train was injured.

The driver of the vehicle was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, an Amtrak spokeswoman said today.

The crash happened at 7:31 p.m. in Chesterton, 41 miles east of Chicago. The train was delayed 53 minutes.

Source: The Grand Rapids Press
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/12/car-train_collision_delays_amt.html

From AnnArbor.com

City of Ann Arbor transportation manager Eli Cooper drew a line between two dots representing Detroit and Ann Arbor on a large Michigan map.

“The first goes here,” he said referring to what he and many others see as the first priority for an improved rail line in Michigan.

Area residents at the Michigan By Rail public forum Thursday night at Washtenaw Community College were instructed to put stickers on large maps representing important places in Michigan, then draw lines where they would like to see rail service developed. Cooper chose Detroit to Ann Arbor, and one of his group members quickly picked up a marker and drew the next line from Ann Arbor to Chicago.

A pattern quickly emerged as the roughly 10 groups of about 10 people filled in their maps. They connected the cities of southern Michigan’s urbanized network to Chicago and some lines went north to the state’s tourist destinations.

Read more: http://www.annarbor.com/news/rail-advocates-at-public-forum-tell-residents-to-push-the-economic-benefits-of-rail-1/

From the Muskegon Chronicle

Muskegon community leaders and train aficionados are hoping for a “choo-choo” under their Christmas tree.

They gathered this week to contemplate the future of train service in Michigan. With dreams of restoring passenger rail service to Muskegon and even creating a lakeshore tourist route to Mackinaw City, it might take Santa Claus to make such rail expansion a reality.

Amtrak has been a struggling national train system that relies on subsidies at a time federal budget deficits are a critical issue. Currently, the closest service to Muskegon is Amtrak’s Pere Marquette line from Grand Rapids to Chicago, with a stop in Holland.

More than 50 people gathered at the Shoreline Inn and Suites Wednesday to provide a Muskegon perspective for the ongoing Michigan State Rail Plan, which will be completed in June.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/12/muskegon_residents_are_asking.html

From AnnArbor.com

Federal high-speed rail grant money turned down by Wisconsin and Ohio will be redirected to about a dozen other states eager to help develop high-speed rail corridors, and Michigan isn’t on the list of receivers, federal officials announced this afternoon.

The incoming Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio indicated recently they would not move forward to use federal high-speed rail money. That left the federal government trying to find other states that would accept the money, and several jumped at the chance.

The Michigan Legislature still has not agreed to match the $161 million it recently was granted for high-speed rail improvements along the Detroit-to-Chicago corridor. The Republican-controlled Michigan Senate declined to take action to put up the $37 million state match needed to trigger the federal dollars before the most recent legislative session ended.

Read more: http://www.annarbor.com/news/michigan-not-on-list-of-states-receiving-high-speed-rail-funding-turned-down-by-ohio-and-wisconsin/