Officials hopeful that high-speed rail system will include stop in Jackson

From the Jackson Citizen Patriot

Jackson’s historic train depot was bypassed for high-speed rail funding last month, but local officials are still confident it will be a stop on the proposed Detroit-Chicago corridor.

In recent years the Amtrak station, built in 1873 and one of the oldest continuously operating stations in the country, has received $1.3 million in grants to stabilize the building, repair the roof and drains and update plans to make it an intermodal transportation hub.

“They wouldn’t be putting all that money into the station if we weren’t going to be a stop,” said Steven Duke, executive director of the Region 2 Planning Commission.

Last month it was announced the Detroit-Chicago high-speed rail corridor would receive $244 million in federal stimulus funds and $40 million of that went to Michigan to renovate stations in Battle Creek and Troy and build a new station in Dearborn.