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Iowa legislator: Passenger service to Iowa City dead
“We did not see this as a wise investment,” Speaker Paulson said. Yep, it’s a better investment spent on highways, so the highway builders can return some of it as campaign donations.
For less than the $11+k / day this would cost, the state could serve the project 340 daily riders with buses.
Iowa passenger rail supporters should raise the funds privately, perhaps have a telethon or some other fund raising project. No need to have to climb into bed with government bureaucrats to get passenger rail going. Once the trains are a reality, people will support the concept, and it will pay for itself.
Always cars with Iowa license plates parked at the Galesburg, Il Amtrak station. Anyway thanks Iowa, Illinois will take the money.
For those of you capable of reading, check out the US Constitution. Article 1, Section 8. Roads built by government are clearly spelled out. But there is absolutely nothing about government subsidizing the transport of people outside of the military. Amtrak isn’t a track like a bus isn’t a road and like an airplane isn’t an airport. Amtrak falls into the same category as the bus and the airplane. It is a vehicle, not the surface it travels on. The founding fathers were very wise when they called for the funding of roads, but not the funding of the wagons and carriages. Of course if you want this changed and Amtrak made legal and constitutional, all you have to do is get an amendment passed. Until then, Amtrak is 100% illegal and unconstitutional.
To those who are opposed to roads: Where did your food come from? How did it get from the fields to the grain elevators? How did it get from the food processing plant / slaughterhouse to the warehouse? How did it get from the warehouse to your local grocery store? Think about that the next time you go off screaming about how roads are unfair. Last time I checked, fields don’t have rail service. Even in Iowa when there was a branchline every 6 miles once upon a time. Almost no warehouses handling food products have tracks and appropriate dock facilities. Those that do have not used them in decades. And when was the last time you spotted a grocery store with a track and a dock for a boxcar?
My point is, even if you never leave the house, you still use the roads. Especially those roads in an agriculture state like Iowa.
I defer to Iowans as to how Iowa should spends its state tax revenues. As for spending our Federal tax dollars for new start ups (like Iowa), I remind my fellow readers that our existing national passenger system, Amtrak, has plenty of needs especially on the long distance trains and can put those Federal funds returned from Iowa to good use. We should make sure our existing system is in a state of good repair before funding start ups…
This is what 40 years of passenger rail advocacy gets?! We need to learn from the ghey and environmental lobbies.
Of course Iowa highways never ever need taxpayer subsidies. Everyone knows that cars and trucks pay at the pump taxes that cover about 34% of the cost of building, repairing and maintaining highways and rest stops and the rest is funded by gifts from the trucking and bus companies out of the goodness of their hearts, right? Wrong! Federal and State taxes on every citizen pay for the majority of highway costs but that is OK because governments are big in the business of highway and air transportation. How slanted and lobby influenced is our transportation policy??
I am presuming that now the highways are built in Iowa, no more money need be appropriated for more highways or maintenance of existing ones? Why is rail different?
sorry to hear this but i wish california would cancel their high speed rail project
Students at my Alma Mater, The University of Iowa, will have to continue depend on buses to Chicago and Amtrak stops to the south. Who would have thought the route of “The Rocky Mountain Rocket” will be barren of passenger trains.
It just goes to show you how people who don’t understand the need for a comprehensive transportation solution can hold those of us who desire multi-modal transportation hostage. Never mind that these same people are all too happy to dish out more money to fund roads, which strangely get lots of $$$ without being required to show a profit!
Adding $1-$2 on license plate fees in the state would cover the annual $3 million subsidy. Ohio canceeled their Amtrak project based on a $17 million annual subsudy. All public transportation projects in this country are subsidized by our tax dollars.
Well we know that Ohio and Wisconsin will not want the money. America needs to wake up when it comes to transportation needs. We are rapidly becoming a third world country as a whole!!!
Thank you, Speaker Paulson, for doing your job responsibly and saving the taxpayers of Iowa (of which I am one) millions of dollars. I agree with the previous commenter that if the supporters want it, hold a private fundraiser.
A couple of more points: The proposed route is the ex-Rock Island, now Iowa Interstate main line that saw a ton of deferred maintenance under the CRI&P and is still somewhat ragged. Furthermore, the entire line is single track and still has a lot of jointed rail. To bring it up to passenger standards would require significant investment in new ties, welded rail, and new sidings and/or double tracking. That’s tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars more from “investors” (read: taxpayers). Secondly, Iowa City is a bad terminus. Des Moines is the population center of Iowa (625,000+ combined statistical area population) and extending it to Council Bluffs would get Omaha traffic (850,000+ in that metro). Iowa City’s CSA is only 150,000+, and if you’re generous you can include Cedar Rapids’ 250,000+ (25 miles north). Not going all the way across the state in the first place was just a bad decision by whomever proposed this debacle.
Guse, article 1 section 8 gives the government the power to set up a post office and build post roads. I don’t see where it gave the government the right to build public interstate highways that compete with private railroads. Unless all you haul in your truck is the US mail then I think you may be just another Tea Party hypocrite.
The Republicans ride again
I think Andrew makes a very good point. The real prizes are Des Moines and Omaha. Also the proposed schedule was way too slow. As a Rock Island fan and an Iowa native, I would love to see this move forward, but it is better to do it right or not do it at all. A slow train that doesn’t reach the larger markets won’t attract enough riders and will only give Amtrak’s critics more ammunition. Illinois also should upgrade the line to increase speeds or use a bus connection to the Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandberg.