Peoria Station

Passenger traffic at grew significantly at the Peoria Int'l Airport in the first two months of 2020.  According the the airport's press release on Thursday , both January and February figures broke records with 51,436 and 52,825 passengers, respectively. The former broke a record for the month set in 2017 while the latter broke a record set just last year. Having an extra day in February was likely the biggest factor in the rise in passenger traffic. Unfortunately, a sudden decline in traffic this month brought on by the coronavirus pandemic will cause significant service cutbacks. Expect April to be slow as well. Both business and leisure travel will be affected, so it is possible that Allegiant Air will suspend most if not all service for a few weeks (or more) while American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express will reduce frequencies and even suspend some service altogether (Delta Connection's single daily roundtrip to Minneapolis/St. Paul comes to min...

Two events in 1999 - AccessAir's failure and the displacement by Bloomington-Normal's Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA) as the region's leading airline passenger facility - threatened PIA's future as 2000 dawned. The question on everyone's mind was how to deal with the problem. Let us review happenings by airline for the year. AMERICAN EAGLE (American Eagle Airlines) By the end of May 2000, flights moved from Gate 4 to Gate 5, which was formerly used by AccessAir and was jetway-equipped. About this time, the carrier announced that it intended to convert all Chicago-O'Hare flights to regional jets by fall. Peoria would gain a sixth daily roundtrip (first shown in AA's September 6 timetable). A fifth roundtrip was converted to jet service on August 21 and the sixth on October 23. There would be no more American Eagle ATR-42s operating in or out of Peoria.  NORTHWEST AIRLINK (Mesaba Airlines) On May 1, when Bloomington-Normal received an ...

Moments after replacing my scanner batteries, I heard the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (TZPR) dispatcher give BNSF's M-GALPEI permission to run from S. Darst Street to East Peoria. I was on Wesley Road, so I had to cross the river and get to a good spot.  Fortunately, discussion between the crew and the crew van driver delayed the train's movement, so I arrived with plenty of time.  BNSF 2300, BNSF 2592, BNSF 2742, BNSF 2787 and HLCX 1072 have 37 cars. The symbol, M-GALPEI, stands for "Manifest, Galesburg, IL to Peoria, IL." - David P. Jordan

I caught several area train movements Sunday afternoon.  The three shown in this video were taken at Blue Ridge Road, located just west of Chillicothe, Illinois on BNSF Railway's Chillicothe Subdivision, within about twenty minutes.  (1) Vehicle - BNSF 8343-7853 have 76 cars. (2) Intermodal - BNSF 6789-785-4284-5097 have 70 platforms. (3) Intermodal - BNSF 6147-5202-7690-4111 have 86 platforms. Next, I caught this westbound intermodal train at Chillicothe but had to drive to near Princeville (N. Rice Road) to capture it on video.  BNSF 8029-7617-3966-5526 have 131 platforms. Finally, I saw this Tazewell & Peoria Railroad local leaving the East Peoria Yard for ADM Grain Co's Hilliards (Creve Coeur) barge loadout. TZPR 2133 has 21 grain mash loads which came off the Iowa Interstate. - David P. Jordan

Time for more Transportation Q&A! Feel free to ask questions here on transportation topics. If I don't know the answer, I'll find one. - David P. Jordan

Bloomington-Normal's Central Illinois Regional Airport is again on a growth track, and is gaining another new destination. The Pantagraph reported Tuesday that CIRA handled 421,519 passengers in 2019. That's a 15.6 increase over 2018 when 364,482 passengers when through the facility's gates. The rise in traffic was attributed to Low Cost Carrier service by Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines. The former has just announced seasonal nonstops from CIRA to Destin/Fort Walton Beach from June 4 to August 16. Flights will operate Sundays and Thursdays.  - David P. Jordan

I got lucky Tuesday. BNSF Railway's Peoria Subdivision is now void of active customers save for two industries on Galesburg's east side. Gates Corp. manufacturers rubber at a plant opened in 1961 and receives carbon black by rail on a regular basis. Progress Rail Services, which purchased Galesburg Iron & Metal Co. about 2008 and had a new spur built on its property ten years ago, receives retired rolling stock for dismantling.  While in the Galesburg area yesterday, I happened to catch a BNSF local job switching Gates Corp's spur east of town with snoot nose SD40-2 1905 and TEBC6 54 (a slug built by RELCO from an SD9). The first twelve cars were for Progress Rail Services' nearby facility (where retired rolling stock goes to die) and the three carbon black cars were switched to or from Gates Corp.  Other industries on this line in recent years were Caterpillar's "tire plant" in Peoria, which closed in 2017; the rarely-served Caterp...