Springfield-Sangamon Transportation Center is a planned intermodal transit station in

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, that will serve

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

trains, intercity buses, and

Sangamon Mass Transit District The Sangamon Mass Transit District (SMTD) is a regional mass transit district that mostly serves Springfield, Illinois along with a few neighboring communities. It is governed by a seven-member board of trustees, who are all appointed by the Sang ...

bus and

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

services. The station is under construction at 9th and Adams Street in Springfield, just north of the

Sangamon County Courthouse The Sangamon County Courts Complex, located at 200 S. 9th Street in Springfield, Illinois, Springfield, is the county courthouse serving Sangamon County, Illinois, Sangamon County, Illinois. The Complex is made up of two adjacent buildings, one us ...

. Groundbreaking took place in October 2021.

Description

Construction of the new Transportation Center is part of the "Springfield Rail Improvements Project". The $122 million project will re-route all passenger and freight railroad operations away from the historic

Chicago and Alton The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad , was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 an ...

right-of-way, which is

street running A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being referred to as r ...

in parts of Springfield. The train traffic, including Amtrak, will be re-routed onto a non-street-running right-of-way operated by the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

. The new Springfield train station will serve trains on the new route. In 2021, the projected cost of the transportation center rose from $80 million to $86 million. The new Center will follow the current paradigm of consolidating sites of major passenger train service together with motorbus hubs in a location with a motor vehicle parking lot or garage. The Bloomington-Normal Amtrak station, completed in 2012 on the same Amtrak route, already follows this paradigm. The new Center will be constructed in compliance with guidelines established under the

Americans With Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...

. Groundbreaking took place in October 2021, by which time the tentative completion date had been delayed from 2024 until 2025.

History

The new Center's railroad right-of-way uses a right-of-way formerly used by the

Wabash Railroad The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary con ...

. The railroad's former

Lincoln Depot Lincoln Depot is located in Springfield, Illinois. It is so called because Abraham Lincoln's bittersweet 1861 Farewell Address to Springfield was delivered here as he boarded the train to Washington D.C. at the beginning of his presidency. H ...

, one block south of the new intermodal station, is preserved as the site of the departure of Abraham Lincoln for Washington, D.C. on February 11, 1861, and the site of

Abraham Lincoln's farewell address Abraham Lincoln's Farewell Address was a speech made by President-elect Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois on February 11, 1861. The speech was one of Lincoln's most emotional, as he and the public knew there were tremendous challenges ahead ...

. After the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, many Americans of African ancestry found work in the nation's fast-growing railroad industry, including on the Wabash. The streetscapes near the Wabash became Springfield neighborhoods of predominantly African-American identity until 1908, when they were targeted in the Springfield Race Riot of 1908. The streets around the Transportation Center were a focus and target of the rioters; and the center is being designed so as to contain an exhibit and memorial, intended to be permanent, to remember the tragic event. Construction of the new station will entail abandonment by Amtrak of their current passenger depot. The current station was opened for service by the Chicago and Alton in 1895. February 2007 estimates of the cost of construction of the transportation center project had ranged from $13 million to $18 million, but this was a decrease from an even earlier estimate of $50.0 million.All aboard? by Kurt Erickson - Illinois Issues
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References

{{reflist Amtrak stations in Illinois Future Amtrak stations in the United States Railway stations scheduled to open in 2025

Description

History

See also

References