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Gov.
Blagojevich Hails Nomination of Tom Carper to National Board of
Amtrak
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[November 19, 2007]
CHICAGO -- Gov. Rod R.
Blagojevich congratulated Tom Carper, the former mayor of Macomb and
manager of the West Central region of the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Economic Opportunity, on his nomination by Sen. Dick
Durbin, D-Ill., to serve on the national board of directors for
Amtrak. The governor also urged quick action on the nomination by
the U.S. Senate and said that the appointment highlights the success
of the state's partnership with Amtrak, which has seen phenomenal
growth in riders here since Illinois doubled state support for the
rail service last year.
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 "As a former mayor and regional manager at DCEO, Tom understands how
important passenger rail is to our economy and communities across
the state," Blagojevich said. "I congratulate Tom and am confident
he will do an outstanding job serving Illinois and the entire
Midwest region of the country on the board of Amtrak."Durbin put
the nomination forward, and Carper was formally nominated by
President Bush. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate
Commerce Committee and the full Senate. Despite taking on the new
duties, Carper will continue in his current position with the
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The governor said that Carper led the fight to preserve passenger
rail service in the region and state when he served as mayor of
Macomb from 1991 to 2003. In 1991 Carper was appointed by the Amtrak
board of directors to the Amtrak Mayors' Advisory Council and served
as its chairman from 2000 to 2001.
Illinois expanded its partnership with Amtrak in October of 2006,
when it doubled state funding from the Illinois Department of
Transportation for the rail line to more than $24 million to pay for
increased service on three routes. In the year since the added
service began, ridership on the state-supported trains surged by 108
percent on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor. Ridership between Chicago
and Carbondale is up by 67.4 percent for the state-supported trains
and by 41.4 percent on the state-supported trains on the
Chicago-Galesburg-Quincy route. In all, nearly 3.6 million
passengers used Amtrak stations in Illinois in the last federal
fiscal year.
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During his tenure as mayor of Macomb, Carper attained leadership
roles in various statewide organizations, including service on the
board of directors of the Illinois Municipal League (1993-2003), as
chairman of the IML Non Home Rule Committee (1994-2003), and on the
board of directors of the Illinois Humanities Council and the
Illinois Arts Alliance.
Blagojevich picked Carper to serve as regional director for the
West Central region for Opportunity Returns, a regional economic
development plan fostering job creation and targeted economic
development.
Carper graduated from Western Illinois University and served in
the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970 in Thailand and Vietnam. He was a
small-business owner-operator from 1971 to 1991, when he was first
elected mayor of Macomb.
[Text from file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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