City ready to fight 3rd St. high-speed rail plan

Springfield aldermen and Mayor Tim Davlin Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution opposing plans for high-speed rail and additional freight traffic along Third Street.

The city is prepared to fight the idea in court and is urging the Union Pacific Railroad to look again at the 10th Street corridor as a better route for high-speed rail, according to the resolution.

“I want to make this statement perfectly clear: Nobody is opposed to high-speed rail,” Davlin said during Tuesday’s city council meeting. “We want high-speed rail in our city. It’s just where that’s going to be located is where we have the biggest concern.

“Evidently, from everything I’m hearing from around the state, we’re the one community that’s impacted the most,” Davlin said. “Probably 99 percent of all the impact is right here in Springfield.”

Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards said a non-binding resolution isn’t enough.

“We need an all-out fight,” he said.

Edwards said the city needs to “drag our U.S. Senator (Democrat Dick Durbin) into this fight.”
“This is his hometown,” Edwards said. “We need to know where he stands. We need to have him in the fight with us.”

Durbin has not taken a position on Third Street vs. 10th Street, but has urged Davlin and Sangamon County Board Chairman Andy Van Meter to meet with the railroad executives to examine the impact of additional train traffic.

Davlin said community leaders are giving Durbin information on the consequences to the city.

“(Durbin’s) told me personally that he thinks he needs to see all the information that’s available,” Davlin said after the meeting. “He only has a certain amount of influence that he can put on those railways. We just have to make sure whatever we propose is something that perhaps both of them can live with.”

Steve Combs, president of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, thanked the council for the resolution and urged members to get Durbin involved.

“This train has been to Springfield and it’s gone,” Combs said. “The fight now is past IDOT. It’s past Union Pacific … the fight now, unfortunately is at that federal level.”

The resolution, sponsored by Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney and Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman, calls the Third Street proposal “devastating to downtown Springfield, adjacent neighborhoods and the city in general because of the negative impact on future growth and revitalization.”

“This city has spent years trying to revitalize downtown,” Cahnman said. “We’ve finally gotten to the point where it’s a vibrant area, filled with commerce and tourists. This is just going to devastate the downtown area.”

By DEANA POOLE
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER