(The Associated Press circulated the following article on February 2.)
DES MOINES, Iowa — Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad operator, says shipments should have fewer delays traveling across Iowa as the company makes costly improvements to its main line from Chicago to the west coast.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company spent 35 (m) million dollars last year installing signals and crossover tracks in Iowa, mostly in the western part of the state, to allow faster trains to pass slower trains in front of them.
Spokesman John Bromley says this year, the company plans to upgrade tracks in the Carroll area in western Iowa and between Cedar Rapids and Clinton in eastern Iowa.
Bromley says all 320 miles of tracks on the east-west line across Iowa should be upgraded by 2006, with the last work done in the Marshalltown area in central Iowa.