The DeKalb County Amtrak Forum held a meeting Wednesday to determine a way to attack the two biggest questions that DeKalb is trying to answer: What are the priorities? What are the benefits about an Amtrak route through DeKalb? There is still an unresolved issue between the state legislatures about the Amtrak route through DeKalb County.

“It is not about what goes through, it is about getting the support from our train,” said Ruth Anne Tobias, chairman of the DeKalb County Board.

The problem dates back to July 3, 2006, when DeKalb County officials attended a meeting with Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation. The direct route was found. With Amtrak’s new route it would be the lowest capital cost, the highest amount of riders, fast service, the quickest implementation and the fewest operating agreements.

This new route would service two stations in the greater part of Rockford that would go to downtown Chicago and to the south Alpine Station. In the Amtrak study, over 650,000 people would be serviced by South Elgin and Genoa Stations.

Genoa City Manager Joe Misurelli said the Spring of 2009 was a complete shock to him. IDOT was performing a study for the best direct route. With the research IDOT found out route A is not recommended and will be dropped from any more consideration. DeKalb County was prepared to start proving that a new route, route C, was the best.

Through studies, route C would also service NIU. In plans route C grew to have the highest ridership and the lowest capital cost and travel time. The direct route has a possibility of approaching up to $20 million cost savings in transportation. Illinois Senator Brad Burzynski,  said he believes the IDOT study will be finished around December but is not exactly sure.

“I just hope all of the information is made more available so the study can be done in a more fair manner,” Burzynski said.