U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, held a series of meetings Friday put together by U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill.

Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, has argued for greater federal funding of the country’s transportation needs, and he was a receptive audience for local officials seeking federal aid.

At a meeting with advocates for a passenger rail connection between the Quad-Cities and Wyanet, Ill., Oberstar was bullish on improvements in Illinois, where traffic has spiked significantly on the heels of state upgrades.

Last month, an Amtrak study said it would cost up to $23 million in infrastructure improvements to create passenger rail service between the Quad-Cities and Wyanet, and local officials list it as one of the area’s top transportation priorities.

After hearing the upgrades needed for the project, Oberstar called it “way ahead” of other places.

In remarks to reporters, Oberstar criticized President Bush’s transportation spending proposals for fiscal year 2009. And he praised a recent report recommending a significant increase in spending on the country’s infrastructure, with much of it to be paid for by a 25- to 40-cent increase in gasoline taxes over five years.

The report, by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, said the country’s infrastructure is in crisis.

“We’ll need an increase in user fees,” Oberstar said Friday.

The 18.3-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax was last increased in 1993.

After the Interstate 35 bridge collapse last year in Minnesota, Oberstar proposed a 5-cent increase, but that failed.

He said Friday the “mindless policy” forbidding tax increases isn’t sustainable.

On the I-74 project, local officials were stressing its importance to the area as well as pointing out the need for more money to purchase right of way, something that could begin this summer, said Denise Bulat, executive director of the Bi-State Regional Commission.

Both Hare and U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, were on hand for the meetings Friday. Braley is a member of the Transportation Committee. Hare isn’t, but he extended the invitation to Oberstar to visit here.

“I am hopeful that his visit will create the momentum necessary to steer important federal dollars to the Quad-Cities — the single most important component of revitalizing our local economy,” Hare said Friday.