Lincoln Service

The ''Lincoln Service'' is a higher-speed rail service operated by Amtrak that runs between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train is a part of the '' Illinois Service'' and is partially funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The train uses the same route as the long-distance ''Texas Eagle'', which continues to and . A connection with the -bound ''Missouri River Runner'' is available in St. Louis.

, the average trip time between Chicago and St. Louis was 5 hours 17 minutes. Future infrastructure upgrades are expected to reduce the time to under 4 hours.

During fiscal year 2016 (ending September '16), the ''Lincoln Service'' trains carried 548,955 passengers, a decrease of 4.8% from FY2015. The service had a total revenue of $14,266,964, a decrease of 1.3% from FY2015.

History

Prior to the ''Lincoln Service'', Amtrak had been operating the '' State House'' between Chicago and St. Louis since 1973. Originally intended to connect Chicago and Springfield, Amtrak extended the ''State House'' south to St. Louis at its own expense because Springfield station was not designed to turn equipment. The train used a route previously owned by the Alton Railroad, which merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad (GM&O) in 1947. The GM&O merged with the Illinois Central Railroad in 1972, a year after Amtrak had taken over passenger train service.

As a result of upgrades on the line between Chicago and St. Louis, Amtrak rebranded the ''State House'' as the ''Lincoln Service'' on October 30, 2006, with two additional round trips. This resulted in the Chicago-St. Louis corridor being served by five daily round trips, including the ''Texas Eagle'' and ''Ann Rutledge'' which terminated beyond St. Louis. From April 2007 the ''Ann Rutledge'' operated only between Kansas City and St. Louis where it connected once daily to the Lincoln Service. The ''Ann Rutledge'' was folded into the ''Missouri River Runner'' in 2009; one ''Lincoln Service'' round trip per day still connects with the ''Missouri River Runner.''

In July 2010, the state of Illinois and the Union Pacific Railroad reached an agreement under which track speeds between Dwight and Alton, Illinois were to be raised to as high as . This speed will cut the travel time between Chicago and St. Louis by 90 minutes, bringing the trip to under four hours. The first track upgrade construction was planned to be between Alton and Lincoln, Illinois and was projected to cost $98 million. The construction on this stretch began on September 17, 2010, in Alton and was completed in 2011. Most of the funding came from $1.1 billion in stimulus money for Illinois high-speed rail from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The remainder of this grant, as well as $400 million in funding from the state of Illinois, was used to complete a high-speed rail corridor for the remaining portions of the St. Louis–Chicago track. Senator Dick Durbin suggested the Dwight–Alton upgrades would create some 900 jobs, while the overall project could generate 24,000.

On March 22, 2011, an announcement was made in Chicago that an additional $685 million would be used to upgrade trackage and grade crossings between Dwight and Lincoln. Construction on the improvement project began on April 5, 2011.

Although much of track upgrade work was completed between 2010 and 2012, there are additional constructions including second trackage, bridge replacement and rehabilitation, drainage improvements, and grade crossings and signal improvements before the full service can be fully operated on this route. After all required improvements on the first segment between Dwight and Pontiac, Illinois were completed, Amtrak started the higher-speed rail service with top speeds of on that segment in November 2012, with the entire section between Alton and Joliet expected to have operation by 2017.

The slowest portion of the corridor is the segment between Chicago and Joliet, but improving this would require an additional $1.5 billion investment. Two projects proposed from the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) would remove two diamond crossings and construct an overpass to increase train speed and eliminate delays. One project is in the preliminary design phase while the proposed flyover at Brighton Park crossing is unfunded. As of 2022, an alternative solution rerouting trains via the Rock Island District, which bypasses these diamond crossings and has relatively few freight trains, is being considered. This option would reduce delays and allow higher speeds between Joliet and Chicago.

Effective July 7, 2021, ''Lincoln Service'' and ''Texas Eagle'' trains were allowed a top speed of after Federal Railroad Administration dual certification of the Incremental Train Control System and Interoperable Electronic Train Management System between south of Joliet Union Station and Alton, Illinois. On December 13, 2021, scheduled travel times were reduced by approximately 15 minutes between St. Louis and Chicago as a result of the increased speeds.

Around May 2022, Amtrak began through-routing one round trip of the ''Missouri River Runner'' and ''Lincoln Service'', creating a Kansas City–Chicago round trip.

Train

A ''Lincoln Service'' train consists of the following:
*One or two Siemens SC-44 locomotives
*Three to seven Amfleet, Horizon Fleet, or Venture coaches
*One Amfleet or Horizon Fleet cafe/business car

Ridership

Route and station stops

The Metra ''Heritage Corridor'' commuter line uses the same route from Joliet to Union Station.

One ''Lincoln Service'' round trip per day connects with the St. Louis-Kansas City ''Missouri River Runner,'' providing through service between Chicago and Kansas City. Additionally, one southbound ''Lincoln Service'' runs express to St. Louis via Joliet, Bloomington-Normal, Springfield and Alton.

See also

*''Loop''

References

Notes

External links

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{{Higher speed rail

Amtrak routes
Higher-speed rail
Passenger rail transportation in Illinois
Passenger rail transportation in Missouri