Last week, Illinois gained a powerful ally in Washington D.C. when Amtrak’s board of directors unanimously hired Macomb’s former-Mayor Thomas Carper to head the agency. Carper has served on Amtrak’s board since last March and was nominated by Sen. Dick Durbin because of his efforts to preserve Amtrak while in office from 1991 to 2003. Here’s the senior senator’s take:

“Tom Carper has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Amtrak board,” said Mr. Durbin in a statement. “As mayor and regional director for West Central Illinois’ economic development plan, he brought together business leaders, community leaders and elected officials around a common goal. He has done the same as a member of the Amtrak board to improve passenger rail in the United States. He is an excellent choice for chairman.”

Carper is taking over Amtrak at a key juncture in its history. The nation’s rail needs are vast. A new American Society of Civil Engineers report card gives the national network a C- and claims “more than $200 billion is needed through 2035 to accommodate anticipated growth to the passenger and freight systems.”

Illinois is no exception.

In August, we highlighted the sorry state of the Lincoln Corridor. In today’s Tribune, Jon Hilkevitch details the capacity problems Illinois transit officials have dealt with this winter:

Amtrak reports that its “failure to operate” record in Illinois was about 1 percent, or roughly 20 canceled trains, from Nov. 1 through early January.

Illinois officials disagree. In December alone, 43 Amtrak trips on state-supported routes were canceled or late by 15 minutes or more, officials said. Eleven trains were late by more than two hours.

Yet ridership continues to climb. Numbers released two weeks ago show passengers on the three Illinois routes were up 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to last year’s record, despite falling gas prices and an economic recession. It’s clear that when trains are available, Americans like to hop on board.

And it appears help is on the way. Long neglected by federal lawmakers, Congress passed a five-year, $13 billion bill to repair and expand Amtrak rail service last October, the first reauthorization bill since 1997. Amtrak will also receive some assistance via the stimulus—though maybe not as much as transit advocates had hoped—and will play a key role in the surface transportation bill Congress will reauthorize this year. Here’s hoping Carper and his fellow Illinoisan at the Department of Transportation take us down the right track.

Image courtesy of Western Illinois University.