Why push trains when we have buses?

Though Gov. Chet Culver is pushing passenger rail service from Iowa City to Chicago, at least some people are saying buses are better travel options.

Eugene Hibbs, station agent for Burlington Trailways and Greyhound in Iowa City, said buses are cheaper, faster and more environmentally friendly. And they're available today without spending billions of taxpayer dollars.

Hibbs won't say how many people make the Iowa City-to-Chicago trip by bus, though he conceded it's a fraction of the 187,000 passengers the Iowa Department of Transportation estimates for an Iowa-Chicago rail connection.

“Where are they coming from?” Hibbs said. Achieving that total, he said, will take more than Iowans making a once-a-year pilgrimage to Wrigley Field or an annual Chicago shopping vacation.

The typical bus passengers out of Iowa City, he said, are students, business travelers or people visiting their families.

Culver, however, predicts a passenger rail link will create opportunities for bus companies. Buses could bring people from Des Moines and elsewhere to catch the train in Iowa City, he said.

Ron Moore, president of Burlington Trailways, a family-owned company, has worked with Amtrak to bus people to rail depots on the Davenport-to-Indianapolis Amtrak route. However, he doesn't see any advantage for him if he loses revenue on his Iowa City-to-Chicago routes. His company offers about 100,000 seats a year on those routes.

“We're not filled to capacity, but it helps to subsidize our other routes,” Moore said. “If we can't make money on our main routes, ... those smaller communities could see a loss of service.”

He and Hibbs question the idea of convenience, too.

Greyhound and Trailways offer four buses a day to Chicago - five on the weekends. Three of them make the trip in less than five hours - the time that DOT estimates for the train trip.

“I can't see the upside except the legroom and you can stand up while it's moving,” Hibbs said about train travel. Buses don't offer a diner or a bar car, but new motor coaches offer televisions, wireless Internet access and bathrooms, he said.

Buses beat Amtrak's on-time performance, too, Hibbs said. Amtrak typically has a 90- to 100-minute delay at Mount Pleasant. At Iowa City, buses average delays of less than 15 minutes, he said.

Hibbs laughs at rail advocates' “green” argument, pointing to a 2008 study that found buses average 206.6 passenger miles per gallon of fuel. Intercity rail - Amtrak - gets 67 passenger miles per gallon. Also, buses' CO2 output per mile is roughly a quarter of the output of intercity trains.

Bottom line, Hibbs said, “If service is terrible, the price is not right and it costs the taxpayers $6 million a year and $30 million upfront, then you've got to ask how many people will take the train.”