Public Involvement Program

A key planning tool for the Illinois High-Speed Rail Chicago to St. Louis project is a public outreach program to facilitate communications between the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Union Pacific, Amtrak, and the municipalities, townships, counties, and other stakeholders along this corridor. An Agency Stakeholder Involvement Plan has been developed and serves as a blueprint for defining the outreach tools and methods that will be used throughout the project to engage stakeholders.

Public involvement will be an ongoing process from project initiation through completion. Various outreach methods will be utilized throughout the project development process to provide involvement opportunities to all stakeholders. These opportunities include the following:

• Media Briefings
• Elected Officials/County Briefings
• Small Group Meetings
• Public Meetings & Workshops
• Speakers Bureaus
• Public Hearings
• Information booths at local community events
• Surveys
• Visualization Techniques

In addition to the opportunities above, several other methods will be used for the public to obtain information about the project. These are as follows:

• Mailing List
• Comment Forms
• Newsletters/Fact Sheets
• Website
• Program Hotline
• Social Media