After more than four decades, the long-dormant passenger rail line between Chicago and Moline might finally be coming back to life.

Illinois’ new $1.5 billion statewide transit funding bill—best known for keeping the CTA, Metra and Pace afloat—contains a smaller but significant provision: $450 million earmarked to restore rail service between Chicago and the Quad Cities. This could change the game for Western Illinois travel and give Chicagoans an easy, scenic ride straight to one of the Midwest’s most underrated regions.

The proposed route would revive a service that last ran in 1978, when the famed Quad Cities Rocket rolled its final run on the Rock Island Railroad. Unlike most lines, Rock Island chose not to join Amtrak in 1971, effectively cutting off Moline and its neighbors from di

See Full Page