State, Iowa City rail backers await funding announcement

Supporters of a Chicago-Iowa City passenger rail route are optimistic the project will receive federal funding in the next week or so.

“It's all kind of leaning in that direction,” said Tammy Nicholson, director of Iowa's office of rail transportation.

Illinois Congressman Phil Hare announced last week Moline will receive $10 million to build a new passenger rail station in Moline – “one of the final pieces to the puzzle for bringing passenger rail back to the Quad Cities,” according to Hare.

Once Amtrak service reaches the Quad Cities, it's only another 65 miles or so to Iowa City. Nicholson expects an announcement any day on Iowa and Illinois' joint application for a $248 million federal grant for track and signal improvements and other work to allow trains to start rolling over the full route by 2012.

“We still have a great deal of enthusiasm” for the plan's chances, said Nancy Quellhorst, president and CEO of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber launched a lobbying effort on behalf of the project in March 2009.

Last winter, the Iowa Legislature committed to the 20-percent state match required to receive the federal grant.

In January, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced that state will spend $45 million on the Chicago-Quad Cities route.

The trains would run 115 miles from Chicago  over the BNSF Railway to Wyanet, Ill., where a new connection would be built to the tracks of Cedar Rapids-based Iowa Interstate Railroad, allowing the trains to run the final 102 miles to Iowa City.

The plan calls for Iowa Interstate's tracks to be upgraded to allow 79-mph running to allow a five-hour trip between Iowa City and Chicago. That level of service should draw 187,000 riders a year, according to the study.

Iowa received a $1 million grant early this year to study extending the new service to Des Moines and eventually Omaha.