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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The U.S. Congress passed a law that transferred
3the requirement of the railroads to operate passenger trains
4to the federally-owned National Railroad Passenger Corporation
5in 1970; and
 
6    WHEREAS, When the U.S. Department of Transportation drew
7maps defining where these Amtrak trains would go, they did not
8include local service in Illinois between Quincy and Chicago,
9which included Macomb, Galesburg, Kewanee, Princeton, Mendota,
10Plano, and the Chicago suburbs, and the service ended on May
1111, 1971; and
 
12    WHEREAS, When interested parties in Macomb and Quincy lost
13their fight against the law in federal court, they then asked
14the State of Illinois to sponsor the service, worked with
15communities along the route, and convinced the Illinois
16General Assembly and Governor to sponsor daily local Amtrak
17service under the Illinois Department of Transportation; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The morning eastbound and evening westbound
19Illinois Zephyr trains have operated since November 4, 1971;
20and
 
21    WHEREAS, This region of Illinois has benefited from being

 

 

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1the longest continuously operated state-supported train in the
2Amtrak network for 50 years; and
 
3    WHEREAS, These same communities banded together to create
4the Amtrak Carl Sandberg train in 2006, with departures
5westbound in the morning and eastbound in the evening,
6doubling local service on the route; this route is marking its
715th anniversary this year; therefore, be it
 
8    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
9HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
10we declare November 3, 2021 as Amtrak Anniversary Day in the
11State of Illinois; and be it further
 
12    RESOLVED, That we recognize the work in 1971 and again in
132006 that resulted in this region of Illinois having vital
14passenger train connections to and from Chicago and cities in
15Western and North-Central Illinois; and be it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That we urge the cities on the route to continue
17to work with each other, Amtrak, the Illinois Department of
18Transportation, and others to maintain and improve the local
19Amtrak service that is such an asset to the communities it
20serves; and be it further
 
21    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be

 

 

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1presented to the mayors of Quincy, Macomb, Galesburg, Kewanee,
2Princeton, Mendota, Plano, Naperville, and LaGrange.