Carbondale Waiting Room Closed for Some Trains

The waiting room of the Amtrak station in Carbondale, Illinois, has been closed temporarily for Trains 391 (southbound Saluki) and 392 (northbound Illini) until further notice.

Amtrak said in a service advisory that trains will continue to stop at the station and passengers will have access to platforms.

Passengers traveling on Trains 391 and 392 will not have access to the inside of the station or restrooms during this time.

The waiting room will be available for other trains, including the City of New Orleans in both directions and the northbound Saluki and southbound Illini.

Just 2 BUILD Grants Will Benefit Amtrak

Only two of the rail projects that recently received federal BUILD grants that were awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation will directly benefit Amtrak service.

Both involve Amtrak stations in Illinois.

A $14 million grant was awarded for building an underpass at the station in Normal, Illinois, that also serves nearby Bloomington.

The federal funds will pay for design and construction of a pedestrian, bicyclist, and passenger underpass and a second boarding platform at the station.

Normal is served by Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service trains as well as the Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle.

The other grant was $14 million for design and construction of a new multi-modal transportation center in downtown Carbondale.

That station will replace a modular facility Amtrak opened in the 1980s.

Carbondale is the southern terminus of Amtrak’s Illini and Saluki as well as an intermediate stop for the City of New Orleans, which operates between Chicago and New Orleans.

USDOT handed out $900 million in BUILD grants for 55 transportation-related infrastructure projects in 35 states,

Half of the funding went to projects in rural areas of the country and the lion’s share ($603 million) went to highway projects.

Rail projects received $48.3 million or 5 percent of the total. Transit projects received $84.6 million or 10 percent of the total.

Florida received the largest amount of grant funding followed by North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi and Louisiana.

California received two grants while Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut received no grant funding.

BUILD Grant to be Used for New Carbondale Station

Federal grant funds will be used to create a new transportation center in Carbondale, Illinois, that will be used by Amtrak.

The $14 million grant will be used to pay for the design and construction of the new facility, as well as demolition of the existing Amtrak station.

The new facility, once opened, will also serve intercity bus routes.

The funding is being awarded from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development program.

Carbondale is the southern origination and termination point for the state-funded Illini and Saluki, which operate on Canadian National tracks to and from Chicago.

The city, which is home to Southern Illinois University, is also a station stop and crew change point for the Chicago-New Orleans City of New Orleans

The current Carbondale station opened on Oct. 8, 1981, and was built as part of a grade crossing reduction project.

Construction Set at Carbondale Station

Access to the Amtrak station in Carbondale, Illinois, will be limited for six weeks starting Sept. 3 due to a construction project.

In a service advisory, Amtrak said work will be done on the plaza and ramp access to the station.

During that time, one ADA-compliant path will remain open to and from the depot.

Passengers and visitors are being urged to look for signs and to use caution when going to and from the station and train platform.

Carbondale is served by Amtrak’s Illini, Saluki and City of New Orleans.

Turning the Shawnee in Carbondale

It is a Monday afternoon in Carbondale, Illinois. I had a day off from work and spent part of it riding Amtrak’s Shawnee from Mattoon, Illinois, where I lived and worked at the time, to Carbondale.

I could board train No. 391 in late morning, arrive in Carbondale in early afternoon and then take No. 392, which was due to depart at 4 p.m., back, home.

The date is May 7, 1979, and the scene is pure 1970s. An Illinois Central Gulf geep has tied onto the rear of the Shawnee and will pull it to North Yard where the consist will be turned on a wye.

If you look hard enough you can see the light towers in the yard as well as the old coaling tower. A portion of the St. Louis Division office building is visible on the right edge in the distance.

The train is sitting in front of the former Illinois Central passenger station. At one time, Carbondale was a busy place where through cars for St. Louis were switched in and out of Chicago-New Orleans trains.

In Amtrak’s early years cars were added and subtracted from Amtrak Nos. 58 and 59 (Chicago-New Orleans), but that didn’t last long.

On the point of the Shawnee is P30CH No. 724, which was less than four years old at the time. Pooches were common fixtures on corridor trains running on ICG tracks.

The consist of the train is three Amfleet cars, one of them an Amcafe, and a baggage car. The latter did not routinely operate on Nos. 391/392 but in the 1970s Amtrak sometimes assigned a baggage car to the Shawnee during periods when the colleges along the line were starting or ending a term.

Today, much of what can be seen here is gone. The Pooches are long since been retired. The tracks are now owned by Canadian National and Amtrak built its own station at a location farther south. There aren’t as many tracks, either.

The Shawnee name is gone but there are now two pairs of Chicago-Carbondale trains, one named the Illini and the other the Saluki. College students still make up a substantial market for this corridor. The old IC passenger station still exists but has been re-purposed.

Although not apparent at the time, this scene captures the transition from the ICRR passenger train era to a modern Amtrak era in which passenger stations and the railroad infrastructure serving them have been much reduced in scope.

Back in 1979, though, you could still imagine what this place looked like when the trains wore orange and chocolate brown and the Carbondale station was a much busier place.

Carbondale Eyeing Larger Amtrak Station

 

Officials in Carbondale, Ill., are talking with Amtrak about expanding that city’s railroad station. The plans were discussed this week at a public meeting of the Carbondale Downtown Advisory Committee.

Gary Williams, the city’s economic development coordinator, said that Carbondale has held preliminary talks with Amtrak about enlarging its station. The expanded station would likely be an intermodal center that would also serve buses.

Williams said the station was designed for 175 passengers daily but current traffic in the building is 380 daily and 135,000 riders annually. The city would like to build a new 10,000-foot facility that would extend from the current station onto nearby city-owned property.

Carbondale is served by three pairs of Amtrak trains, the City of New Orleans, Saluki and Illini. The latter two trains are funded by the State of Illinois and originate/terminate in Carbondale.