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Amtrak to offer Iowa bus connections for holidays
This is a long time coming. For those not familiar with the area, Osceola is about 50 miles south of Des Moines, and a little over 80 from Ames. That’s a long way to go to drop off or pick up someone at the train station. It’s a little remote from main population centers to not have connecting service. Of course, Amtrak could just reroute the Chicago to Omaha portion of the Zephyr from the BNSF to the Iowa Interstate and hit all those population centers, but what do I know?
The Iowa Interstate would make a great route for Chicago-Omaha corridor service. The route is both shorter and more populated than the current route. Also, there will soon be a connection to get back on the BNSF in Illinois.
However, southern Iowa would lose all service if the Zephyr were rerouted over the Iowa Interstate. While the smaller communities are smaller markets, Amtrak stands to get greater market share due to these communities’ lack of interstates and major airports.
With either approach, the problem is that the Iowa Interstate would require a lot of money in upgrades to be competitive for passenger service. In the long term, I hope this happens. In the short term, I hope the Thruway service is successful enough to be continued after the holidays.