Study: Ill. Amtrak line could draw 111K
| 08 Jan 2008 | 07:10 PM ET
CHICAGO (AP) - Train feasibility studies don't normally elicit much excitement from casino executives like Bill Renk.
But an Amtrak report released this week gives casino operators in Illinois plenty of reason to smile, concluding that a proposed passenger-train route between Chicago and the Quad Cities could carry 111,000 riders a year.
Many of those riders would likely be Chicago gamblers heading to casinos along the Mississippi River, the study concludes.
"We're very much delighted," Renk, vice president for sales and marketing at the Jumer's Casino Rock Island, said Tuesday. "What this would do is put us in a good position to expose Chicagoland to what the Quad Cities have to offer." There's also good news for longtime advocates of a Chicago-Quad Cities line who feared the project might be too pricey.
The upbeat study estimates costs of upgrading existing track for passenger-train use at between $14 million and $23 million -- lower than earlier estimates of around $30 million. State operating costs would run about $6 million a year, it says.
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