State, Iowa City rail backers await funding announcement

Backers of the plan to bring passenger rail service to Iowa City are cautiously optimistic about gaining Gov. Terry Branstad's longterm support for the project, based on what they're hearing from the governor's fellow Republicans.

“In conversations I've had with Republican leadership, they're cautiously optimistic about the project,” Rebecca Neades, vice president and director of public policy for the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce, told The Gazette editorial board this afternoon.

A Chicago-Iowa City Amtrak route has been a chamber priority for about the past five years. The $310 million project received $230 million in federal support last fall.

The Iowa Legislature has appropriated $11.5 million for planning and design work through 2012, with an additional $20 million pending. The Republicans who won a legislative majority last November have named passenger rail as budget-reduction target.

Although Branstad has questioned the projected $3 million annual state subsidy to keep the service operating, Neades said he's indicated support for the capital improvements to the Iowa Interstate Railroad over whose tracks the trains would run between Iowa City and northern Illinois.

The state can't accept the capital spending without committing to running the passenger trains. But trains won't begin running until 2015, leaving the state time to come up with the operating money while the track and signal improvements proceed.

“There's no need to stop construction and wait for four years,” said Paul Rumler, executive director of the Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition.

Rumler is confident the new train, which would also serve the Quad Cities, will carry the projected 246,800 passengers. He compared the new service to that linking Chicago and Quincy, Ill., about half the size of Iowa City. Trains on that route carried 209,466 last year.