A commuter rail is, to all appearances, the natural next step on the
path of progress. The public transportation systems in the
Eastern Iowa Technology Corridor are mediocre, at best -- where
they exist at all. Most of the smaller towns in this region have
no public transportation systems. Many people commute hour or
more everyday, just to get to work. Although a comparable
amount of people use carpooling, it does not come close to relieving
traffic in the numbers that buses and commuter trains would.
There are also at least two demographic groups of people which rely
almost exclusively on public transportation, the kindness of strangers,
and their own two feet. As an epileptic and as a college student
whom no one trusts with a car, I know very well that these sources do
not always suffice.
We know that various bodies of government, at
least at the state level, have been tossing this idea back and forth
for a while. The bill for a midwest interstate
passenger rail passed in both the Iowa House and Senate, the Governor
of Iowa signed it, and it would have gone into affect 1 July, 2007, but
for the Iowa General Assembly, in which it did not attain the majority
vote necessary for the Assembly to appropriate funds.
So let's tell the Iowa General Assembly just how badly we need this commuter train!
