Todd Dorman's post today about rail service in Iowa got me thinking again about one of my favorite imaginary projects, the Central Iowa Light Rail Corridor. I invented it.It goes from the area around South Dayton Avenue in Ames (near Highway 30) down to Ankeny (with a possible stop near DMACC), then on to the Iowa Capitol/East Village area. It then heads west through downtown Des Moines, with a split around the new public library. The south spur goes to the Des Moines airport, while the west spur continues along I-235 with stops on the way out to West Des Moines. The western terminus is around Jordan Creek.
What do you all think? Would people ride it? Which stages of it would make sense to build first?
When I lived in the Twin Cities, people were passionately polarized about light rail. However, it worked...so well that ridership has surpassed expectations.
3 comments:
I definitely agree that long-distance rail travel is impractical as Todd stated, but would LOVE to see a commuter rail in Des Moines. I would love to see it built from downtown west first as that is the way that I most frequently travel.
Also, if I remember correctly, much of the opposition to Minnesota's light rail system was the fact that they were building over existing bike trails. I was a little sad about that; the 15-20 mile ride to Lake Harriet was one of my family's favorite summer routes.
Yes, it's a great idea, and yes, people would ride it. Ten years ago people made fun of the light rail in Denver, but ridership has been huge, and it's also sparked a lot of redevelopment in the neighborhoods around the stops on the line.
This should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it's easier to rally people behind adding an extra lane on the interstate, even if that's more expensive than commuter rail.
But what about numbers? We only have 3 million on a good day in the entire state...do we have the demographics to justify and pay for it? We cannot use Mpls nd Denver as examples as they have a much greater population base.
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