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Iowa: no crazy train for you!

January 29, 2010

Supporters of hugely-subsidized rail passenger service in Iowa were disappointed when their dreams of Soviet Amtrak service to Iowa City and Des Moines were reduced to four remote controlled crossovers in southern Iowa.

But when it comes to getting federal money for obsolete technology, the dream never dies:

But train supporters, including Gov. Chet Culver, said they won't give up their efforts to upgrade passenger rail service in Iowa.

"With the work we have already done, we will be competitive for future rounds of funding," Culver said.

As we have pointed out, advocates for expanded passenger rail rely on passenger demand projections that make the original forecasts for wildly profitable harness racing in Iowa look realistic. For example, the Iowa City route is "projected" to have 187,000 riders annually. Ridership of 187,000 assumes that everyone in Iowa City takes the trip three times a year, or that everybody in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, the two towns in the area, rides once a year. It assumes over 500 riders a day, 365 days a year, between Iowa City and Chicago. That's a pipe dream. The two routes serving Iowa now had Iowa boardings at six stations totaling 64,260 in 2008.

Not only does the obsession with the delusion of efficient rail service waste your money, it actually damages more practical forms of mass transit. For example, transportation planners in Des Moines want to move the current bus lines, which now discharge in the middle of the business district next to the skywalk, to a new terminal down by the railroad tracks, to accommodate trains that will never come. This would force the thousands who actually use existing mass transit to walk through the rain, snow and ice three blocks for the convenience of the imaginary train riders.

Approximate location of proposed downtown Des Moines bus-rail hub.

Still, the central planners are undaunted:

Tom Kane, executive director of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, said the federal grant decisions were a setback for Des Moines. That's because passenger train service can't be restored to Des Moines until a train begins operating between Chicago and Iowa City. Metro officials hope once that happens, passenger train service can be extended from Iowa City through Des Moines to Omaha.

"This decision is a blow to us," Kane said. "We need a transportation system that gives us choices - a combination of air, road and rail. This is a disappointment, but it will not diminish our interest."

Des Moines hasn't had regularly scheduled passenger train service since May 31, 1970, when the Rock Island Lines' Cornbelt Rocket train ceased operations. The Cornbelt Rocket ran between Council Bluffs and Chicago.

So we "need" something we've done without for 40 years. Maybe Grandpa was right 40 years ago when he figured out that people wouldn't pay enough to ride trains to come close to covering the costs of running them. Yet those who like to indulge nostalgia with your grandchildrens' tax money won't let that stand in their way.

Tags: Amtrak.Chet Culver.Des Moines.downtown.Rail transport.

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