LET'S GET THE OBJECTIVES RIGHT. The editors of the DeKalb Daily Chronicle weigh in on the choice of an Amtrak route to Dubuque.

Two separate studies, one by Amtrak the other by the Illinois Department of Transportation, found that going through Genoa was the better route, for a number of reasons. Rather than leading the way to get Amtrak back to Rockford through the studies’ determined best route, [several local officials'] priority was making sure it went through Belvidere.

Granted, they threw their support behind the [Genoa] route once IDOT had rejected their arguments and chosen what was termed the Direct Route, through Genoa. But that support was tepid at best after months and years of dismissing the studies that [state senator Brad] Burzynski now calls “faulty” and says might have been politically skewed.

So now, Burzynski, [Belvidere mayor Fred] Brereton and other Rockford area officials are waiting for the results of yet another study, and they’re confident this one will be neither faulty nor skewed. In the meantime, they seem to wish DeKalb County officials simply would get on board with Belvidere, lest they jeopardize the project altogether.

“If the federal government or IDOT is looking for an excuse [not to fund a rail project], tonight we’re giving it,” Brereton said Wednesday.

Yet when the federal government and IDOT wanted to go through Genoa, Brereton and his allies raised a ruckus, and by his line of thinking, cost the state the $60 million it could have received in federal dollars.

Now it’s state money that’s on the line, and he wants DeKalb County to go quietly. Don’t do it. DeKalb County officials need to keep the pressure on IDOT and Amtrak to choose the route that’s best for Amtrak and best for Illinois taxpayers.

Brereton wants all of northern Illinois to speak with one voice; as long as that voice is his. DeKalb County has a voice, too. Now is the time to use it.

The better reason there will be no train is if the train project isn't well thought out. Without a twice-daily frequency and some regard for day trippers in both directions, including commuting workers, there's no point.

It's not obvious that the wrangling over the route cost the State Line the $60 million. The national government stopped funding new Amtrak routes during the Bush administration, and the stimulus money for high-speed trains probably didn't envision a Talgo in the mountain regions of the North West Frontier.