Passenger Flights May Bring US Support For Rail
Traffic Improves Chances For Federal Funds
Belleville, IL (October 15, 2000) -- Passenger flights at MidAmerica-St. Louis Airport bode well for the chances of getting federal dollars to extend Metro-Link there, local officials said.
The request for federal dollars will be made in the spring, and the final decision should be known a year from now, said U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, a Democrat from Belleville.
"When the request comes in, I intend to do everything I can to make it happen," said Costello, who sits on the House Public Transportation Committee. "I've always been optimistic that we will complete the plan as originally intended."
Neither Costello nor the local planners could provide cost projections for the final leg to MidAmerica. The extension from East St. Louis to Southwestern Illinois College will cost $339.2 million, and the leg from the college to Scott Air Force Base will cost $75 million.
As part of its request for federal dollars for the final leg from Scott to MidAmerica, Bi-State must make ridership projections for the next 20 years. Those projections, according to St. Clair County Transit District Executive Director Bill Gregson, are what the federal government will use in deciding whether to award Bi-State the funds.
Gregson said making ridership projections 20 years into the future is very difficult. "That's a pretty tall task, in my opinion," he said. "We don't know what Pan Am is going to do."
Still, John Roach, a consultant to Bi-State who is heavily involved in the project, said the arrival of Pan Am at MidAmerica can only mean good things for the transit agency's ridership projections. "You can fairly project that there will be additional flight activity out there over the years," he said.
Bi-State spokesman Jon Soucy said securing funding for the extension is important to the agency, and a goal it expects to achieve.
"From the beginning of the project, this alignment was seen as a 26-mile project extending from Fifth and Missouri in East St. Louis to MidAmerica-St. Louis Airport, thus completing the airport-to-airport connection and significantly enhancing the transportation opportunities throughout the region," he said.
The federal transportation official who questioned the need for funding the extension to MidAmerica declined comment about whether Pan Am's arrival boosts the prospects for federal funding.
Ken Mead, inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, criticized the idea of funding the extension to MidAmerica Airport when he visited the metroeast this spring, because no commercial carriers were using the airport. Mead said a lack of flights would prevent Bi-State's ridership projections from being high enough to secure funding.
He said last week that his office has no jurisdiction in the funding decision, so he would not comment.
The MetroLink extension from Fifth and Missouri in East St. Louis to SWIC in Belleville will open in May. Bi-State has funding from the state of Illinois and St. Clair County to extend the line from the college to Scott AFB. That portion of the line will open sometime in 2003.
David Fink, the president of PanAm, said the MetroLink extension is a major reason that Pan Am chose to begin providing service at MidAmerica Airport.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
David Van Den Berg Article © Belleville News-Democrat
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