Peoria Station

Time for more Transportation Q & A! Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one. - David P. Jordan

Saturday morning, I caught Union Pacific's LSF51 (Bloomington IL to Carlinville IL) local switching International Paper Co. in Lincoln, Illinois.  Built in 1947 by U. S. Corrugated, the "box factory" is located on a remnant of Illinois Central Railroad's Havana District, and employs about 100. Boise Cascade purchased the plant in 1984 and Willamette purchased it in 1992. Willamette added a warehouse (including an enclosure for boxcar unloading) in 2002 about which time the company was acquired by its competitor, Weyerhaeuser Co. Six years later, International Paper Co. acquired Weyerhaeuser's corrugated packaging operations. Like many light-density, grain belt branchlines, Illinois Central's Havana District suffered from motor carrier competition and proximity to river barge service. Successor Illinois Central Gulf abandoned most of the line in segments between 1981 and 1987. All that is left are three sections at Lincoln, Clinton and Champaign-Seym

Delta Connection CRJ900 at Indianapolis Int'l Airport on August 11, 2017 Peoria is getting larger jets to Atlanta and Detroit in November.  The upgrade appears temporary, but is likely preliminary to regular deployment. Thanks to one of my commenters, I know that all Delta Connection flights to Atlanta and Detroit are being operated by 76-seat Bombardier CRJ900 twinjets between Sunday, November 4 and Monday, November 26. I checked online schedules to confirm it. All flights revert to CRJ200s on November 27.  The upgrade is probably a trial run, and could well be cancelled, but regional carriers are replacing 50-seat jets with larger types such as these. Peoria will get them eventually.  - David P. Jordan

The sadness never ceases when it comes to dying railroad branchlines and their indifferent owners.  A quarter century ago, as interest in rail freight operations blossomed, I became familiar with a remnant of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's Pekin District. The Toledo, Peoria & Western assumed operation of a middle portion of Santa Fe's only Illinois branchline through lease on July 8, 1983. Just less than six months later, TP&W was absorbed by its parent. Then on February 3, 1989, TP&W was reborn as a shortline. When TP&W first served Morton customers in 1983, there were three active customers - Caterpillar Tractor Co. (parts department), Libby, McNeil & Libby (canned pumpkin) and Morton Buildings (timber truss plant). Service was provided five days a week, Monday thru Friday, with an East Peoria-base Morton Switcher operating via Pekin Junction on Washington's east side. A trackage rights agreement with the Norfolk & Western R

Peoria Int'l Airport posted an all-time record for passenger traffic last month.  Ski season and spring break makes March a typically busy month for the local airport and that trend continued in 2018. Last month, 62,645 passengers passed through PIA's gates. The prior record, 61,199, was achieved just last year. According to airport Director Gene Olson, in  a press release posted today , "...Allegiant, which flies nonstop to six leisure destinations from PIA, saw their numbers up more than 15 percent over last March." Perhaps Springfield's loss of Orlando-Sanford flights at the start of 2018 helped Peoria? Good business should continue when Destin/Fort Walton Beach nonstops resume May 2.  Also in today's press release, Although PIA had its third busiest year in 2017, a recent market analysis showed the airport captures just 58 percent of the air travel within a 25- to 40-mile radius. Of the 42 percent choosing another airport, 33 percent

Most of the time, I encounter Iowa Interstate trains leaving Peoria. This afternoon, I caught one arriving .  Train SIPE (Silvis, IL to Peoria, IL) entered the Peoria Subdivision before 3:30 Monday afternoon. I caught it as it approached Chillicothe. In the first scene, SIPE rolls past Galena Road Gravel Co's sand loading track off on the city's north side. At the 2:49 mark, an eastbound Union Pacific intermodal train races in the background on BNSF's Transcon toward the Joliet Intermodal Terminal.  The second scene is at San Koty, just north of Peoria along Rt. 29. The train is moving at mainline speed (25mph) here. Although most of the train's 117 cars were loaded, two locomotives suffice. Most of those loads, btw, are feed, potash and soybeans (green Incobrasa cars). Some alcohol, chemical and steel empties round out the consist.  - David P. Jordan

Central Illinois Regional Airport posted a 5 percent increase in passenger traffic in January 2018.  That's according to the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority' February 13 meeting minutes . Officials credit increased leisure traffic on Allegiant Air to to both Orlando-Sanford and St. Petersburg/Clearwater. American Eagle's Dallas/Ft. Worth flights, which were upgraded to larger, 76-seat CRJ900s from 50-seat Embraer 145s in March 2017, showed strength as well. Business travel demand remains soft. Reduced capacity to Atlanta (Delta Connection) and weather issues with Chicago-O'Hare (American Eagle) were cited as reasons for declining traffic to those hubs. Delta Connection's Minneapolis/St. Paul flights showed slight growth. FedEx Express cargo volume continues to strengthen, posting a double-digit increase four months in a row, with an 18 percent increase in January.  - David P. Jordan

Time for more Transportation Q & A! Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one. - David P. Jordan