A gentleman by the name of Rod Whiteside started the push for a QCA to Chicago passenger service 20 yrs ago. Rod was the guy who ran the football specials on the IOWA RR back in the 80s. His ideas carry on long past his death only a few years ago. One of his old buddies had some of the cars on the Rocket during the days after AMTRAK began and THE ROCK kept their own passenger service.

The sad truth to the effort is the RRs in the QCA would not be able to handle passenger trains as the RRs are set up today. A passenger train departing Rock Island,IL. would travel the first 10 miles on an industrial lead at 10mph. The next 50 miles would be at 40mph. The 79mph trackage would be only after getting on the BNSF halfway to Chicago at a point where there is no physical connection between RRs. This is the BNSF/IAIS/BNSF routing. Total time would be about 4hrs. You can drive from the QCA in 2'55" downtown to downtown. A number of people have been commuting to Chicago from the QCA for years via I88. Its adirect route and a tollway.