Maps
There are five previously established, primary passenger railroad routes traversing this corridor that will be analyzed. A combination of those routes will also be studied.
http://www.iowadot.gov/chicagotoomaha/maps.html
One of the routes on the map is the largely abandon across Iowa Milwaukee Road.
Your input will help the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration understand your priorities, concerns and goals for for the reestablishment of intercity passenger rail service from Chicago, Illinois, through Iowa, to Omaha, Nebraska.
http://chicagotoomaha.com/
Online input is being sought.
It’s too bad that the population centers in Iowa (lots of them, anyway) are concentrated into two parallel corridors, completely exclusive of one another, and that either of them could be extended into Illinois to service more populated areas.
I’m referring, of course, to the old CNW and Rock Island main lines. CNW got Clinton, Cedar Rapids, and Ames; RI got the Quad Cities, Iowa City, and Des Moines. West of I-35, there just isn’t much to influence a route, until one gets to Council Bluffs.
About then, I’d just start looking at the lowest mileages. You’ll have to go from scratch, anyway…UP would want more track along their route, and IAIS would need to practically be rebuilt anyway.
What is interesting is the time and money spent by the Iowa DOT on its online public hearing. Illinois is aiming for Moline. Illinois has been the elephantine political entity moving this project. The old Rock Island is the only way from Moline to Omaha.
The dotted line of what was the Milwaukee Road across Iowa is pure show. 30 years gone and real estate sold is a no go from the start. Perhaps it will make voters along the few remaining stretches of yet to be leveled grade and weeds feel better to think they were considered.
This project is a political decision. If a new route comes to pass, there is one political decision remaining. Do you move Amtrak’s California Zephyr off the old CB&Q across Southern Iowa to the old Rock Island?
We’ve got a related thread over in the Passenger section but I would not necessarily have any qualms about simply re-routing the CZ from BNSF over to IAIS. What bothers me, though, is the money that would have to be sunk into IAIS to get it up to F.R.A. Class IV standards that would allow 79 mph running in most places. That’s why I think you have to at least keep the UP “Overland Route” option open.