Effort to return passenger service still on track

By Sarah Larson, Dispatch/Argus Staff writer

Efforts to bring railroad passenger travel back to the Quad-Cities are on track and gathering steam.

Iowa City-based Iowa Interstate Railroad meets later this month with officials from I&M Rail Link, Amtrak and a major shipper to discuss passenger and freight service to Chicago through the Quad-Cities and Savanna, said Vince

Castagno, Iowa Interstate vice president of sales and marketing.

At the same time, local officials are lobbying Springfield for more than $5 million to link Iowa Interstate tracks to Burlington Northern-Sante Fe tracks at Wyanet, Ill., Bi-State Regional Commission planner Denise Bulat said.

A third, more ambitious effort also is under way to link the major population centers of the Midwest in a regional passenger rail system. Called the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative (MRRI), it is a cooperative effort of nine Midwestern states, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration.

While MRRI plans develop, Iowa Interstate is working on passenger and express freight service from Iowa to Chicago, Mr. Castagno said. From Davenport, the route would run north along the Mississippi River to Savanna on I&M lines, then east to Chicago.

The project has a better chance of becoming reality if a major customer guarantees shipping its products in express freight cars attached to the Amtrak passenger cars, keeping the service cost-effective, Mr. Castagno said.

The extended travel time of that service, however, wouldn't help Quad-Cities business travelers who need to get to Chicago and back quickly, every day, Ms. Bulat said.

That's why local officials recently asked the state for financial help to link Iowa Interstate lines and Burlington Northern-Sante Fe lines in Wyanet, Ill., she said, an estimated $5 million project.

``If they could provide funding for that linkage at Wyanet, theoretically, the railcar could start running at nice speeds between here and Chicago,'' if Amtrak agreed to provide the service, Ms. Bulat said.

Iowa Interstate tracks between the Quad-Cities and Wyanet would allow speeds of at least 50 to 60 mph, she said, while the upgraded Burlington Northern-Sante Fe lines would allow up to 100 mph between Wyanet and Chicago.

That corridor then could be absorbed into Illinois' portion of the MRRI system that would be hubbed out of Chicago, Ms. Bulat said. Planners should be finished with a study detailing MRRI cost estimates in about two months, Ms. Bulat said.

It's the third phase of a study commissioned in December 1996. The first phase determined rail expansion was physically possible and financially viable. The second refined the numbers and began preliminary engineering work. This third study refines the numbers further, putting about a $3.5 billion price tag on the nine-state system, Ms. Bulat said.

The make-or-break point will come when the third phase is finished, she said.

``Then they'll have to make the decision whether to develop a pact where the states formally agree to work together,'' Ms. Bulat said. ``Then discussions with federal legislators about the need to fund it at the federal level would begin.''

That's going to be the tough part.

The states need to convince federal officials to pay 80 percent of the $3.5 billion project, Ms. Bulat said. Then the states must come up with a 20 percent match.

``That will be a very important factor in this whole project,'' Ms. Bulat said. ``There hasn't been a lot of rail funding in past transportion legislation.''

Though officials and planners have been heading the movement, ``real'' people need to get on board the movement if they ever want to see a passenger car pull up to their local depot, Ms. Bulat said.

Legislators are much more inclined to fund transportation projects they know people will actually use, she said.

``If the general public is truly interested in seeing a resurgence of passenger rail service so they can go those mid-length distances, then they need to be contacting their legislators to say, `We really want this,'|'' Ms. Bulat said. ``I'm not sure they've been hearing that. It really needs to be a grassroots level.''

The 3,000-mile MRRI network would have its hub in Chicago, with spokes leading to Minneapolis, Green Bay, Wis., Omaha, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, and Quincy and Carbondale in Illinois.

The Chicago to Omaha route is slated to run through the Quad-Cities, Iowa City and Des Moines.

The MRRI feasibility study showed that travelers would use a high-speed rail system if it could get them where they needed to go in times comparable to cars or airplanes, Ms. Bulat said.

``The study showed that if you get the service to these locations at a high enough speed, there will be no shortfall in passengers,'' she said. ``It's a `once you build it, they will come,' project.''