Does anybody out there know what the identity of the station stops would be on the proposed Chicago-Omaha passenger train that would supposedly best run on Iowa Interstate?
Besides the Quad Cities, they would likely utilize Iowa City, MAYBE Newton, Des Moines, and Atlantic.
What would be the point of a Chicago-Omaha passenger train?
I could see routes like Chicago-St. Louis, Chicago-Minneapolis, but Chicago-Omaha?
Rich
Grinnell might also be a candidate, possibly instead of Newton. It’s a college town and is closer to the halfway point between Iowa City and Des Moines.
Jeff
Jeff,
Yep, you’re probably right on that front…I conveniently forgot about Grinnell and was thinking in terms of Newton as I believe it is still a crew change point, correct?
Let’s see. Oh yeah elections coming up. A train to woo votes and never happen.
Rich, the point isn’t necessarily to add another train between Chicago and Omaha, but to give viable transportation to all of those Iowa communities along that route. Having said that, having train service to Omaha during any time but the wee hours might be helpful, too.
If you could convince the powers that be in Iowa that this would be a good thing, it could perhaps become the route of the existing service across Iowa, opening up more possibilities (would an upgraded IAIS be faster than the current BNSF west of Wyanet?). And why not, just for fun, extend it beyond Omaha to Lincoln, which also is currently blessed with service only in the middle of the night?
Yes, Newton is still a crew change terminal for the IAIS. I don’t know if that would matter to Amtrak who would be using their own crews and establish their own change point/crew base locations. Also where the two steam engines are stored.
Newton is only about 30 miles from Des Moines (35 from the downtown exRI depot) and it’s biggest claim to importance (home of Maytag) is gone. Even if Maytag was still based there, independent and fully operational I doubt that there would be much demand for business travel in these current times. Although they still have the restored RI depot that would look good with a passenger train stopping there. I’m not sure who owns it or what it’s used for.
Jeff
PS About it being an election year. I doubt that has much to do with it. About half the legislature and the executive branch are cold, if not openly hostile to the idea. They’ld rather have roads, which they don’t want to fund either.
Newton does have the Iowa Speedway. Perhaps they could stop there just on race weekends.
For those of you who can’t get enough of this topic, there is a similar thread under the Passenger heading.