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   SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Springfield and Sangamon County officials have announced an agreement with the state on design work for consolidating train traffic through Illinois' capital city. The effort is part of high-speed rail development.

   The agreement made public Wednesday involves nearly $8.7 million to pay for half of the design work. The project would move rail traffic through the downtown core farther out to a corridor on the city's east side.

   The deal was signed by Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider, Springfield Mayor Michael Houston and Sangamon County Board Chairman Andy Van Meter.

   The project is part of the Chicago-to-St. Louis high-speed rail development. There is no current funding for train traffic consolidation.

   The plan would include new track alignments and separating automobile and train traffic in spots.

   

Railroad officials say the man struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Pacific Wednesday night had been cutting across the tracks when the accident happened. Police say 20 year -old Zachary Brady was walking home from his job at a fast-food restaurant when Amtrak's Missouri River Runner train struck and killed him.

Police say this is the fourth serious accident along the Union Pacific line near the Fourth Street crossing in the last eight years -- two others were also fatal.

An Amtrak official told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that most accidents involving pedestrians could be avoided if people wouldn't trespass on railroad tracks. Trespasser fatalities have become the leading cause of railroad deaths.

A 20-year-old man is dead after being struck by an Amtrak train in Pacific.

Police say the man was walking on the tracks when he was hit and killed around 8:45 last night at the North 4th Street crossing.

Amtrak officials confirm that the accident involved a train carrying 58 passengers en route from St. Louis to Kansas City.

No one on the train was hurt.