North Liberty not on board with funding new rail study
Local entities are putting money toward a new study on passenger rail in Johnson County, but North Liberty isn't on board.
At a city council meeting Tuesday night, the city decided not to contribute around $3,300 to a $50,000 study that will examine the costs of a potential passenger rail line between Iowa City and North Liberty.
That's in contrast to other local bodies, including Iowa City, Coralville and Johnson County, which all said they'd help fund the study to the tune of $3,332 each. The bulk of the costs are being covered by the Iowa Department of Transportation and Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railroads.
North Liberty council member Chris Hoffman said past studies, including one in 2006 and one last year, have shown the costs for a rail service wouldn't be reasonable for the region. The council expects this study to come to a similar conclusion, he said.
"We all kind of said 'no' reluctantly, because as much as we want to achieve this, history has just shown us that the data’s not there. The participation won’t be there, and those are things we’ve learned in the last couple studies. And that makes it really hard to then sell this to taxpayers as a reasonable proposition," Hoffman said.
Council member Brian Wayson said he would be more interested in putting that money toward bus service in North Liberty, a pilot version of which could be implemented later this year. Currently, North Liberty has bus service to Iowa City twice a day.
The rail line between the two cities would be about 8.1 miles and would serve a growing area. Iowa City has a population of about 71,500. North Liberty is at 18,299 and growing fast.
The new rail study will be more focused than previous looks at the feasibility of rail in the area, according to Jeff Woods, the manager of marketing and business at CRANDIC.
Woods said the new study will focus just on passenger rail between Iowa City and North Liberty, while previous studies have looked at the costs of a line between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. And, where previous studies assumed that any rail lines would operate as both freight and passenger transport, the new study will look only at passenger rail, which Woods said will reduce cost.
"Perhaps the biggest thing is the line would be operated as only a commuter type line. If you operate it as both freight and commuter you have to have all kinds of extraordinarily expensive safety equipment on it," he said.
Once CRANDIC and the DOT know what each entity will contribute, everyone will come together to make a decision about whether to go forward. Woods expects that decision to come next week.
If the study goes forward, it will take about three or four months, according to Woods.
The study envisions a scenario with diesel-powered passenger rail running between Iowa City and North Liberty on existing CRANDIC lines every 30 minutes. There would be six stops, potentially located at Gilbert Street in Iowa City, Burlington Street near the University of Iowa Main Library, the VA Hospital, Coralville, Oakdale and ending near Forevergreen Road in North Liberty.
Once the cost of such a project could be determined, Woods said the next step would be to look at demand and nail down specifics.
Several members of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors said Wednesday they are supportive of the study and will vote on Thursday to provide funds for it.
Supervisor Mike Carberry said providing rail and other public transportation options is both an environmental issue and an issue of poverty for low income people in North Liberty and Coralville who need to get to Iowa City for work or shopping. It's also important to plan for the county's future needs as it grows, he said.
"If we don’t have adequate transportation up and down the corridor then I think we’re dropping the ball, and I think we will be kicking ourselves. The cost is only going to get more expensive as we move forward," Carberry said.
Reach Stephen Gruber-Miller at 319-887-5407 or sgrubermil@press-citizen.com. Follow him at @sgrubermiller.