The Tri County Regional Planning Commission Thursday night narrowly defeated pursuing a proposed study for bus shuttles to and from area Amtrak stations. IDOT offered to pay for the study, to compensate for recommending against a direct Peoria to Bloomington-Normal passenger train link for now.
But, by an 8-7 vote, Tri County took a pass. Board Chairman Mike Phelan says he voted on the side which said, no. Phelan thinks there should be a train link to Peoria, instead of a bus shuttle. Phelan says the 7 who wanted to pursue the bus study had understandable reasons to vote the way they did. He says some thought the bus shuttle study could could turn into a temporary fix, while a contiuned effort to lobby IDOT for train service could go on.
Phelan says he can't understand why the largest metropolitan area in the state outside of Chicago cannot be immediately consdiered for a direct Amtrak link. Governor Pat Quinn currently has been touting train links to the Quad Cities and Champaign-Urbana.
