For the last three years, State Senator Matt McCoy tried to secure state matching funds for a federal passenger rail grant , citing many possible economic benefits to Iowa.
The trucking industry generally opposes improvements to rail infrastructure. McCoy, a leading advocate of rail service to Des Moines, said that after three years of failed efforts to win House GOP support for the project, he is calling it quits. The advocates have given up. The train would offer twice-daily, round-trip service between Iowa City and Chicago with a projected annual ridership of , people.
He also noted that Iowa is already served by an Amtrak train passing across southern Iowa, and that Republican governors in other states have rejected federal money to expand passenger rail service, determining it was not a good investment. But the Iowa DOT is still working on a study that examines the development of passenger rail service in the entire corridor between Chicago and Omaha, Neb.
DOT officials said the study is nearing completion, although they are not sure it will be finished by the time the Iowa Legislature convenes in January. The train proposal never came even close to making sense financially. I have long felt that we wasted a lot of time and effort on this proposal which was not going anywhere. Rising fuel costs in the future will make passenger rail a better choice than cars and trucks , but thanks to people like you, it will be too late for Iowa to take advantage.
You remember Charles Hales, the expert Des Moines brought to town to consult recently on transit issues, right before he became mayor of Portland. Charles has some interesting comments on development brought by rail:. They were built only after the region started handing out billions of dollars in subsidies after the transit lines were built. When Portland opened its first light rail line in , the city immediately zoned the land near stations for high density developments.
