Notice of Availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, for the Chicago, IL to St. Louis, MO High Speed Rail Corridor Program

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FRA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) has been prepared for the Chicago, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri High Speed Rail Corridor Program. The Draft EIS includes a Tier 1 corridor-level evaluation and a Tier 2 project-level evaluation for the Springfield Rail Improvements Project. FRA is the lead federal agency and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is the lead state agency for the environmental review process. IDOT proposes to improve high speed passenger rail service between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, including the rail lines through Springfield, Illinois. The proposed including the development of double tracking along the existing Amtrak railroad corridor to improve high-speed passenger service reliability and safety, and to increase the number of trips between Chicago and St. Louis, as well as including improvements to railroad crossings, signals, and stations. The Draft EIS presents the Program's purpose and need, identifies all reasonable alternatives, describes the affected environment, analyzes the potential environmental impacts of all the reasonable alternatives and the no acti