Plans To Increase Amtrak Service Between Twin Cities, Chicago Move Forward

Project Still Faces Obstacles To Secure Funding For Additional Trains, Infrastructure Improvements

Efforts to add a second Amtrak train between the Twin Cities and Chicago are moving forward.

Transportation officials from Wisconsin and Minnesota held a public meeting in La Crosse this week to get feedback on the first phase of environmental studies.

"This is looking at doing some pre-environmental tasks, and also doing alternatives analysis on the route and operations modeling for how the second train would impact freight rail, and also would determine the infrastructure improvements that are needed to add the service," said Praveena Pidaparthi, project manager for the Minnesota Department of Transportation....