Passenger rail line could pass through Newton

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

Newton could be a stop on an interstate passenger rail line between Chicago and Des Moines if Iowa opts to piggyback on an Illinois rail expansion plan already being considered. In a quarterly update to Newton City Council, Kim Didier, executive director of the Newton Development Corporation, discussed participating in a regional rail meeting last Thursday. The group discussed an Illinois proposal to extend passenger rail service from Chicago to the Quad Cities area. Amtrak has conducted feasibility studies for service between Chicago and the Quad Cities. Rail between the two metropolitan areas appears favorable pending capital funding from the State of Illinois. “It’s not a matter of if they’ll fund it, it’s when they’ll fund it,” Didier said. “And when the state legislature in Springfield gives approval to that, there’ll be a window of opportunity for the State of Iowa to piggyback on that activity to extend the services from the Quad Cities then to Iowa City.” Constructing an Iowa portion in conjunction with the Illinois project could cut costs by more than half, Didier said, from $32 million to somewhere between $10 million and $6 million, if the state is ready to act. After connecting to Iowa City, Amtrak could study ridership and the possibility of connecting the line to Des Moines and beyond. Such a line would likely travel from Iowa City to Des Moines through other communities in between. “That would then be on the Iowa Interstate rail that would go through Grinnell. It would go through Newton, and then continue to Des Moines and ultimately, hopefully, to Council Bluffs,” Didier said. “It’s really exciting and there’s a lot of opportunity there in order to take advantage of diversifying our transportation systems and allowing other options for our residents.”

Also last night, council: • Accepted $580,000 in grant funding from the Economic Development Administration for the Trinity storage shed project. The city will contribute $600,000 for the project which will come from the tax increment financing funds around the new Trinity location. • Accepted work on the demolition of nine homes the city acquired from Against the Wind, LLC. The work cost $35,800. • Gave permission for Action Jack’s Paintball to discharge paintball guns at its planned facilities at South 12th Avenue West. • Submitted an application for state grant funding for the city’s apron expansion project at the Newton Airport. Andy Karr can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 434 or via e-mail at akarr@newtondailynews.com.