• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / News / Passenger rail backers say freight haulers would also see benefits

Passenger rail backers say freight haulers would also see benefits

February 12, 2013 By O. Kay Henderson

Advocates of expanding passenger rail service from Iowa to Chicago say there could be a side-benefit for trains that haul freight. Jeff Kurtz is with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

“If we do the infrastructure improvements necessary where passenger trains and freight can coexist, we won’t have to worry about clearing slow-moving trains,” Kurtz says. “Delays cost money…Hopefully as a state we will move in that direction as we move to invest in rail.”

Kurtz is among seven people who testified before the Senate Transportation Committee late Monday afternoon to tout the idea of expanding passenger rail service from Chicago to the Quad Cities, Iowa City, Des Moines and Council Bluffs. Grinnell Mayor Gordon Canfield is also president of the Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers.

“As our interstate highway system becomes increasingly clogged with heavy traffic or when the roadways are slick with snow and ice, many people would prefer the safety and convenience of trains to go to Chicago or Omaha and beyond,” Canfield said. Geoff Fruin the assistant city manager of Iowa City, used to work in Normal, Illinois, a city where he said passenger rail service had been an “economic game-changer.”

“If you study the Amtrak ridership numbers, they’ve set records in nine of the past 10 years. If you dig down further and you look at the university communities in the Midwest, their ridership has grown even three or four times faster than the national level,” Fruin said.

“Now, that tells me one thing, it’s that the younger generation really values passenger rail and the productivity of time and the access that it provides.” In October of 2010, Iowa and Illinois won a $230-million federal grant to expand passenger rail service, with the ultimate goal of a 110-mile-per-hour train running between Chicago and Omaha.

However, when Republican Governor Terry Branstad took office in 2011, he raised concerns the state would have to sink too much money into the rail line. Iowa Department of Transportation staff still are drafting a cost-benefit analysis.

Republican legislators have also raised cost concerns, suggesting a private railroad company would already be running passenger trains through central Iowa if it were profitable.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: News, Top Story Tagged With: Terry Branstad, Transportation

Featured Stories

Abortion opponents call for ‘life at conception’ law to ban all abortions

Bill would limit placement of solar arrays on farm ground

Marquette casino moving to land, leaving only 2 casino boats in Iowa

Reynolds signs her ‘school choice’ bill into law

Governor Reynolds touts 2024 Iowa Caucuses in Inaugural Address

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

UNI looks to end skid at Evansville

No. 11 Iowa State visits West Virginia

Fast start boosts Drake at Murray State

No coaching changes coming for Iowa football

Iowa State names new receivers coach

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC