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In 1996, the main route from Chicago to New Orleans, CN, has been very active, but in 2006, CN proposed a plan to open a new route from Joliet, IL to many other citys in Illinois. Lately on the CN route, and on few occasions, Amtrak is all that comes. But CN still has a good amount of trains coming through the area, but not as much. Meanwhile, the UP line in IL has had some difficultes competing with CN for more freight, plus recently UP had a derailment on that line. BNSF is also fighting but in downtown Joliet were CN took over that line. To try to keep the area of maineline active with money, CN and the Illinois Board of Transportation thought of extending Metra to the Kankakee area. But do to CTA first ajusting to the higher gas prices, the funding was at minimum. Metra would've been able to do it if they weren't also trying to use areodynamic buses w/electric engines and have a new form of electric service instead of Metra-Electric. The cost was roughly $1,000,000,000.00. So they pospond it until further notice, but with more people taking Metra, due to higher cost of gas, they might raise enough to do it, but until then, Amtrak is our passenger people.
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