SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
December 6, 2023
Sullivan’s Salvos 12/7/23
In this edition:
*RIP Jeff Caswell
*RIP Kathy Stahmer
*RIP Bob Welsh
*Happy Hanukkah!
*Busses on the CRANDIC Line?
*Did You Know?
*RIP Jeff Caswell
I am bummed. I recently lost my cousin, Jeff Caswell, 61, of Kansas City. I had an awful lot of fun with Jeff growing up. It is just very sad. RIP, Cuz.
*RIP Kathy Stahmer
I was sad to hear of the passing of Kathy Stahmer of Coralville. Kathy had been battling cancer for some time; I’m glad her suffering has ended.
Many people knew Kathy as “Mel’s wife,” a role she was happy to fulfill. But it is worth mentioning that Kathy was a strong union advocate in her own right! As a teacher at Tipton she often served as part of the bargaining team, and advocated for workers at every turn. RIP, Kathy!
*RIP Bob Welsh
Johnson County lost a true legend, and I lost a friend and mentor, with the passing of the Reverend Bob Welsh. I will write much more about Bob in a coming edition of Salvos.
Welsh, a retired minister, was well-known in the community for his work advocating on behalf of others. He has spent decades advocating for older adults, caregivers, children and individuals with disabilities, and has been instrumental in local efforts to end housing discrimination and create more affordable housing. He has served on numerous boards and commissions at both the state and local level, including the Johnson County Task Force on Aging, Johnson County Livable Community, Johnson County Consortium on Aging, Children’s Agenda and Older Iowans Legislature.
Here is what I wrote in his 2019 Salvos Salute:
“I am not a young man, yet right around the time I was born, Bob began a crusade to improve the lives of Johnson County's neediest residents. Over the decades, thousands of people have lived better lives because of his work. No one has given more to the ‘least among us’ than Bob Welsh.”
RIP, Bob!
*Happy Hanukkah!
Happy Hanukkah to those of you who celebrate it! Chag urim sameach!
*Busses on the CRANDIC Line?
Johnson County has partnered with North Liberty, Coralville, and Iowa City to do a study of running busses on the CRANDIC railroad tracks. I am excited about the possibilities here! Let’s start with a little history:
CRANDIC railroad is an acronym for “Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.” CRANDIC was originally known as the “Interurban,” and provided both freight and passenger rail service between the two cities. The service began in 1904, and followed the tracks that exist today.
CRANDIC service was robust, with hourly departures from both cities, beginning at 5am and ending at midnight. 50 or so North Liberty kids took the train to high school in Iowa City each morning. Another train, nicknamed the “Milk Can Special,” carried 300 gallons of milk each day, plus straggling kids who had missed the earlier train.
As cars and highways improved, train ridership flagged. By 1952, only 188,000 people rode, and trips had been reduced to 9 per day. (“Only” 188,000 trips, right?) The last passenger train ran in the summer of 1953.
CRANDIC focused on freight over the next 50 years, purchasing lines that connected them to Hills and Amana. Trains still run between CR and IC, but they have become rare.
Over the past twenty years, many people have called for reusing the CRANDIC tracks. 380 between CR and IC is a disaster. Accidents close it about twice every week. Parking and driving are expensive for the individual, and subsidized heavily at all levels of government. The actual cost of driving is high for both you and our society! If we care about the environment and care about our future, we must travel less miles in gas-powered automobiles.
As I see it, one of the best options is the CRANDIC line. It is laid out perfectly – it goes from UIHC, to the Iowa River Landing, to Oakdale, to the new UI hospital, to North Liberty, to Swisher, to the Eastern Iowa Airport. Unbelievably convenient locations! (Once it gets past the airport and enters Linn County, it goes into Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). So going further north will be a challenge.)
We have discussed train service, but there are some obstacles. First, the tracks need an expensive upgrade. Second, we have no “rolling stock” – in other words, we own no engines or passenger cars. Thirdly, no local entity has experience running a rail service. There are other issues, but you get the idea.
So one of the things being considered is running busses on the rail lines. This has been done in other locations with great success, but every instance looks a bit different. In some cases a rubber mat gets laid across the tracks. Other locations have simply torn out the rails. (They need an upgrade anyway.) A third option is overlaying it with asphalt. And those are just a few of the ways local governments have adopted rails for bus traffic.
When you start talking busses? That is something the University, Iowa City, Coralville, and Johnson County know how to do. We each already own rolling stock. We have maintenance facilities, schedulers, and trained drivers. We can operate such a system.
The Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County (MPOJC) is the local group that oversees intracity transportation in the Iowa City metro area. MPOJC is funded by the member governments, but rather than being a cost, they are a conduit to millions of dollars in federal money. The MPOJC has commissioned a study of putting busses on the CRANDIC line. The study should be completed by June, and I am excited to see what it says!
We already know that the report will come back and say this is expensive. But expenses are relative. The newly completed I-80/I-380 interchange cost us taxpayers about $600 million dollars! You heard me correctly - $600 million! We are also adding lanes to 380 and 965. It is truly time to invest in some other means of transportation.
The timing may be good, too. There is a LOT of federal infrastructure money heading out of Washington to state and local governments. Unprecedented money, actually. (Thank you, President Biden!) If we can put together a good proposal, there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to access some federal funding for this.
This will be an uphill political battle, however. Iowa City and Johnson County seem committed. Is the University on board? No one knows. Coralville is worried about the expense. North Liberty has never fully bought in; they have some new faces on Council. It will take all of these entities contributing -and yes, that includes money - to make this work.
If the project doesn’t happen? In my political career, I have a history of waiting for others. My approach has been similar to the Hippocratic Oath – first do no harm. There aren’t three votes to fix up the Poor Farm? OK, then let’s at least preserve it. There aren’t three votes to build an affordable housing project? OK, then let’s at least not sell the land. I have already pushed this several times when it comes to rail. There aren’t the votes to move forward? OK, let’s maintain the right of way. I promise to continue to push for that at the very least.
I am excited to see the results of the feasibility study for busses on the CRANDIC line. I hope you are, too!
*DID YOU KNOW? To put 188,000 trips per year in perspective, since going to no-fare bus service, Iowa City has averaged about 140,000 trips per month. So Iowa City Transit averages about 4600 trips per day, while the old CRANDIC line averaged 500 trips per day.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 10:26 PM
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