It's an exciting time for passenger rail in Iowa, so it's an exciting time for the MIPRC!

On April 18, the state of Iowa and Amtrak released the study on establishing new passenger rail service between the Quad Cities (Moline, East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa) and Iowa City. Building on a feasibility study completed last fall that would establish first-ever Amtrak service between Chicago and the Quad Cities, the 59-mile extension is making history in Iowa. Please click here to read the study.  Please click here to read the Iowa DOT's press release.

The MIPRC has worked with its Iowa commissioners and the DOT to help ensure that the study's unveiling demonstrated a wide swath of support. With Iowa DOT Director Nancy Richardson and Amtrak's Ray Lang as emcees, presenters from local and state government, as well as the head of the Iowa Interstate Railroad, pledged their enthusiastic support.

Sen. Daryl Beall, the Iowa Senate's appointee to the commission, explained that the MIPRC is committed to seeing this project, and others like it, become a reality. "We work in partnership with state DOTs, the federal government, rail passenger advocates, Amtrak, chambers of commerce and businesses. This is much too great of a project for any one state. Strength must come from numbers, from stakeholders," he said.

A Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska route (via the Quad Cities, Iowa City and Des Moines) is the route identified by the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative for eventual four-daily roundtrip service.  Illinois and Iowa will be more than laying the groundwork for that service - they are beginning to make it a reality.

It is an exciting time!

 
James Larew, Nancy Richardson, Sen. Daryl Beall, Ray Lang and Tammy Nicholson (for additional information about the study, please contact Ms. Nicholson at tamara.nicholson@dot.iowa.gov or tel. 515/239-1653) 
Photo courtesy of Keven Arrowsmith, Iowa Department of Transportation.