IOWA CITY, Iowa — A proposal to launch battery-electric commuter train service between Iowa City and North Liberty, Iowa, appears to be dead after the railroad involved said it would not allow use of its trackage.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway, or CRANDIC, told those involved with the proposal that “leasing the line is not a viable option, particularly with many parts of the ultimate vision yet to be determined,” according to an email from Jeff Woods, the railroad’s director of business development and marketing. Liability and regulatory concerns, as well as impact on shippers, were factors, Woods wrote.
Johnson County was considering a three-year pilot program leasing the Pop Up Metro transit system — a package of remanufactured British multiple-unit cars, station platforms, and related equipment and services — for the proposed 8.2-mile operation, at a cost of about $2 million. [see “Iowa county looks at Pop Up Metro …,” Trains News Wire, July 17, 2024]. A low-cost trial is one of the tenets of the Pop Up Metro concept, which has seen interest from a number of entities but is still seeking its first chance to operate the package [see “Pop Up Metro aims to provide …,” News Wire, Oct. 1, 2021].
County Supervisor Rod Sullivan told the Kalona News that all rail options “are pretty much on hold for now … just because they seem to have changed their minds. That’s disappointing to hear, but we’ll just have to move on from there.”
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