(The following story by Rod Boshart appeared on The Gazette website on November 9.)
DES MOINES, Iowa — When gas hits $3.50 to $4 a gallon, Midwest consumers and government officials may become much more interested in expanding passenger rail service than they now are, officials concluded Thursday.
“I think we’re going to have a teaching moment” when Iowans begin seeking alternative transportation to places like Chicago or other cities, James Larew, Gov. Chet Culver’s appointee to the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission, said at a meeting of the commission in Des Moines.
The federal government has been relatively slow in providing financial help to the proposed $7.7 billion, 3,000-mile Midwest rail network, but some states have forged ahead with smaller passenger lines that have been well-received by the public, said Laura Kliewer of the commission’s Lombard, Ill., hub.
“The moment is painfully slow, but we’re seeing increasing progress,” said Elliott Keller of the Cedar Rapids-based Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers. “It remains to be seen if the stars are aligning for passenger rail service, but at least some of the stars are aligning.”
Kliewer noted that a bill in the U.S. Senate to reauthorize Amtrak for six years includes a relatively small $300 million for the Midwest initiative. Even if fully funded, the nine-state network would take 10 to 12 years to complete, she said.
“It needs federal money to move forward in a substantive way,” she said.
A feasibility study already has been completed to upgrade a 182-mile link from Chicago to Dubuque via Rockford and Galena, Ill.
A similar study of passenger rail service from Chicago to the Quad Cities is expected to be completed this month or in early December, said Derrick James, a senior Amtrak government affairs officer. An additional study to expand that line to Iowa City should be available next month, and a separate report on continuing that service to Des Moines is slated for completion in 2008, he said.
Neil Volmer, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation’s planning, programming and modal division, said initial plans call for less-costly upgrades to provide 45 mph passenger rail service, with an eye on increasing train travel speeds to 79 mph in the future.
However, former Davenport Mayor Thom Hart, who served on the DOT commission and is a department transportation and infrastructure manager, called 45 mph travel speeds “junk service” that would not provide the travel times needed to attract users.
Others disagreed, saying it would be better to raise public awareness and interest in passenger rail service before jumping into a high-speed upgrade that calls for a $474 million state investment over 20 years, assuming that the feds would chip in the remaining 60 percent cost of upgrading the system to that standard.
“We’re at the point where now the financial challenges are getting bigger. If the federal government doesn’t respond, it will be very, very difficult,” Volmer said. “We’re talking some big dollars.”
James presented ridership numbers that showed a 5.4 percent increase in fiscal 2007 for the Southwest Chief train that stops in Fort Madison en route from Illinois to Los Angeles. However, there was a 1.7 percent decline for the California Zephyr that makes five Iowa stops en route from Illinois to San Francisco.
Overall, James said, Amtrak had “a stellar year,” carrying an all-time high of more than 25.6 million customers last fiscal year.