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

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway once served numerous industries in Galesburg. According to the Illinois Division Car Location Identity Codes (CLIC) booklet issued for MP 67 to MP 205 in January 1981, track still were in place serving McCabe Scrap Metal, Hanson Lumber, Willis Steel, Consumer Grain, a TOFC ramp, an unnamed coal yard, Butler Manufacturing Co., Iowa Malleable, Illinois Power Co., Brown Specialty, Gale Products, Admiral and Knox Box Co. Most were on the mainline but a few were located on an industrial line on which Chicago, Burlington & Quincy/Burlington Northern also had access. All that is left is Knox Box Co., now Westrock. On June 23, 2018, I caught the City Job switching that corrugated box plant off Linwood Road next to BNSF's Chillicothe Subdivision. Video begins with a roll-by next to the now-closed Archer Daniels Midland Co. soybean processing plant. Next, I shot the train crossing Monmouth Boulevard. BNSF 2377 pulls five paper lo

It is time for another review of Peoria's airline service.  ALLEGIANT AIR This Las Vegas-based Low Cost Carrier (LCC) has stimulated passenger traffic since entering the PIA market March 3, 2004. For summer 2018, nonstop service is offered to six destinations - Destin/Ft. Walton Beach, Las Vegas, Orlando-Sanford, Phoenix-Mesa, Punta Gorda and St. Petersburg/Clearwater. Flights are operated by Airbus A-320s and A-319s and venerable McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, which are scheduled to leave the fleet in November. Frequencies range from one to four per day with Wednesdays and Saturdays being the busiest. Allegiant Air may add more destinations in the near future. The Airport Authority has polled travelers on Los Angeles and Myrtle Beach. The latter recently announced incentives to airlines offering a nonstop link with central Illinois (Bloomington/Normal or Peoria). International service to Cancun and Caribbean points is possible as well.  AMERICAN EAGLE Three regional

Frontier Airlines is resuming service to Bloomington/Normal. It is the third time around for the Denver-based carrier, which served the Twin Cities in 1997-2001 and 2012-2015. This press release tells us that service to Denver begins September 24. On October 2, Orlando service resumes as does expanded service to Denver.  You can bet United Express will resume Peoria-Denver around this time.  - David P. Jordan

Central Illinois Regional Airport is getting two new destinations. An official announcement comes Tuesday, June 19 at 9:00am. The Pantagraph reported this early Saturday.  Although official details will come in a few days, speculation is that Allegiant Air is announcing new service (Las Vegas? Phoenix-Mesa?). Another possibility is that CIRA has convinced Frontier Airlines to resume service. The former seems more likely. Update (June 17): My guesses are: Phoenix-Mesa (twice-weekly) Punta Gorda/Fort Myers (twice-weekly) - David P. Jordan

Peoria International Airport posted a passenger record for May. Last month, 60,261 passengers went through the local facility. The prior May record was in 2014 when 56,470 passengers were handled. According to  this press release , passenger traffic is now five percent higher than during the same period in 2017. There is room for more growth. The press release states, 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 of those are choosing O'Hare International Airport, according to the study. If the five percent increase holds, PIA could potentially handle 667,000 passengers in 2018. That would be a new record, beating 2015's all-time record of 641,671. UPDATE: The Peoria Journal Star  and WMBD TV-31 are reporting this story. UPDATE X2: Allegiant Air resumed seasonal Destin/Fort Wal

Beginning in the late 1970s, events surrounding the Greater Peoria Airport accelerated in frequency. These changes can be credited (or discredited, depending on your perspective) to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Therefore, this and many future posts in this series will focus on a single year. Ozark Air Lines vigorously opposed deregulation, warning proponents that it would result in the loss of service in smaller markets. The Greater Peoria Airport Authority supported deregulation initially, viewing the change as a means to obtain more airlines, but began to modify its view after the announcements of several service cuts. EFFECTS OF DEREGULATION There were cutbacks before deregulation. Sometime in 1978, probably summer, Ozark changed its Detroit-Peoria-Moline-Omaha routing to Detroit-Peoria-Des Moines. Citing the need to deploy its planes on other routes, this service was eliminated December 14. The reduction left Peoria with a single roundtrip to the Motor City, which wa

Union Pacific apparently delivered six covered hoppers to Pioneer Junction sometime Thursday. I only learned of this minutes ago, so I intend to confirm this activity sometime on Saturday morning. Since November 2016, Pioneer Industrial Railway has had a locomotive on the City of Peoria-owned track, but with no activity. The locomotive itself may be inoperable. UPDATE: The six covered hoppers are still sitting where UP left them on Thursday. Photo taken this morning, June 9, 2018. Five of the cars have AEX (The Andersons) markings while the other, CRDX 15679, belongs to Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company. All six covered hoppers are of the grain/grain product service type, and their appearance suggests they're nearing retirement. Pioneer needn't move the cars to begin collecting storage car revenue, but if more show up, PREX 2032 will have to be repaired/fired up to pull them into the park and then probably shove them north toward the end of track (near Route 6). 

According to Bloomberg , Peoria International Airport has been the third-fastest growing small airport in the nation based on capacity increases during the past two years.  Capacity grew 28.7 percent during the last two years, among airports with 5,000 to 25,000 departing seats weekly. Apparently, expansion by Allegiant Air and American Eagle during this time has significantly increased capacity here. Passenger traffic hasn't growth that much, but the increasing number of seats available is a good sign of future growth in that category as well.  - David P. Jordan

In 1977, PIA's air service appeared poised to grow rapidly for the forseeable future. A newly-completed master plan spanning the next 25 years called for the construction of a six-gate concourse with an underground connector to handle a projected 600,000 passengers by 1980. A second six-gate west concourse would be needed by 1990 when traffic was expected to nearly double to 1.1 million. A similar east concourse would be needed by 2000 to handle a projected 2 million annual passengers.  Local officials' optimism was backed by reality thanks to the rapid buildup in service with the introduction of new nonstop or same-plane flights to Indianapolis, Louisville and Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1974, Denver in 1975, Detroit and Omaha in 1976 and new service by Continental Airlines to Chicago, Kansas City and Los Angeles in 1977. More was just around the corner. ATLANTA & FLORIDA In 1972, the Greater Peoria Airport Authority began soliciting air carrier interest in southea

Finally, I caught the Keokuk Junction Railway switching Hitchcock Scrap Yard Inc's new Canton transload facility! Monday's regular westbound local left Mapleton with two loaded gondolas consigned to Hitchcock. They were placed on the rear of the short train to make dropping them easier and to avoid blocking Rt. 78.  This was the first time I've ever  watched a railroad switch an industry in Fulton County's largest city! Of course, there is a good reason for this - for decades, Canton has had no railroad-served industries .  When International Harvester Co. closed in late 1983, it seems that there were no others left that required rail servicde. Freeman United Coal Mining Co. closed its nearby Buckheart Mine in 1984 and  Burlington Northern closed its freight agency that year. The railroad continued local train service (Train No. 13815 out of Galesburg) for several more years to deliver lime to Central Illinois Light Company's Duck Creek Station and

Last year, Chenoa, Illinois-based Prairie Central Cooperative began construction on a new elevator and rail loop. The new facility (see above), being built between Meadows and Chenoa, will be capable of loading 100-car (or more) grain trains when it is completed later in 2018. Grain processors abound in Central Illinois, but the region produces far more than is needed locally, so a large volume is exported to other regions, and other nations. Presently, Prairie Central Coop's three TP&W-served elevators at Meadows, Weston and Fairbury individually ship corn to Peoria (ADM) and soybeans to Gilman (Incobrasa) but co-load a unit train for the southeast, usually routed to CSX at Lafayette, Indiana. The new elevator load unit trains for southeast markets.  Another elevator expansion appears to be in the works. Grainland Coop's Cruger facility is reportedly planning to extend its track east toward Eureka so it can built unit trains of at least 100 cars. Thrice sin

The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway made a Morton run this morning.  I learned of it through social media and took the chance to drive from my home in Dunlap and intercept it. Fortunately, I arrived in time to see TP&W 2105 shoving two loaded herbicide tank cars across Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District. TP&W's Morton Industrial Lead has seen better days. It is used to serve only once customer - Fort Transfer Company. The railroad has wanted to dump its Morton operation for a long time, but Fort Transfer, which began receiving liquid herbicide in early 2002, has kept it going. Access via trackage rights on Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District between East Peoria and Crandall and a small volume of business that fails to contribute much line-haul for the serving carrier has long plagued this last remnant of an ex-Santa Fe branchline which dates to January 1873. I shot video of the train shoving the two tank cars through town and also at Fort