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This month, the Illinois Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration will host a series of public hearings to seek comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that has been prepared for the Chicago-St. Louis Tier 1 EIS.

The DEIS outlines environmental impacts on the alternatives that have been retained for further study. The team studied a range of alternatives for accommodating higher speeds and additional round trips and narrowed them based on a set of evaluation criteria, including residential and commercial impacts, travel time reductions, and safety and environmental impacts.

The alternatives include a full build-out option to add a second track along the corridor. The Chicago-St. Louis corridor currently is single-tracked and shared by freight and Amtrak trains.

Meetings will be held Aug. 8 in Joliet, Aug. 9 in Chicago, Aug. 14 in Bloomington, Aug. 15 in Springfield, Aug.

The DEIS can be viewed at:
http://www.fra.dot.gov/rpd/freight/fp_Chicago_to_StLouis_HSR_Corridor.shtml