(The following story by Sharon Strauss appeared on the Idaho Press website on November 2.)
NAMPA, Idaho — A possibility that Amtrak passenger train service may return to southern Idaho has kindled the interest of downtown Nampa merchants and officials.
Amtrak has pledged to ‘’immediately’’ evaluate resuming its Pioneer passenger train that ran through Canyon County and Boise — if an $8.2 billion funding bill now being debated in Congress wins approval. The Pioneer connected the Seattle and Portland areas with Chicago.
The $11.4 billion bill will keep the national passenger railway running across America over the next six years. It includes an amendment from Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo requiring Amtrak to study reinstating all or parts of the Pioneer route. The Pioneer was dumped from Amtrak’s schedule in 1997 after it lost $20 million.
Many downtown merchants said they would gladly trade the hassles of air travel for a train ride.
“There’s a certain freedom that comes with train travel. And it’s comfortable — you are not bunched into airplane seats with low ceilings. The noise level is quieter,” Ewephoria owner Mary Chown said. “I was disappointed when it was discontinued here. I had always wanted to use it.”
Chown said she hoped for a passenger terminal in downtown Nampa if the rail service is reinstated. “Wouldn’t that be cool? It’s very civilized. It goes back to a time in the ’40s or ’50s when railroad traffic was much more common than air traffic. There’s a neat, nostalgic feeling,” she said. “I think it would be a luxurious way to sit back and enjoy the scenery we have.”
Potential riders offered a positive response.
“I’m ready to ride again and not have to travel again in a car,” said Dave Lancaster, owner of Nafziger’s Men’s Store. “Everyone I talk to is really in favor of it. I think it would be great. Then I could sit back and relax instead of fighting (the traffic).”
Last week, Amtrak’s president Alex Kummert gave Idaho assurances that if the bill passed, he would study the feasibility of the route.
Crapo thinks potential riders are on the rise. And for the local community, a reemergence of train travel could have positive impacts on tourism, some merchants noted.
“I don’t know how train travel is right now, if people really take the trains like they used to. But I think if train travel increased, it could help tourism in the area,” said Sandra Odom, owner of Chasa Art Gallery, who said she doesn’t like the hassles of airports these days. Also, “you see a lot of the country in a train and not in the planes,” Odom said.
Nampa city spokeswoman Sharla Arledge said Mayor Tom Dale “would love to see Amtrak return.”
“He used Amtrak to travel in the past and enjoyed the travel,” she said. “In general the feeling is, anytime we can increase the types of transportation available to our community, all it can do is really benefit our community. I think it would be a very positive thing. Everyone sees it as something very positive.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)