Culver tours western Iowa to promote passenger rail

EARLHAM — The casual observer couldn’t be faulted for seeing Gov. Chet Culver’s itinerary and thinking the 2010 campaign was already underway.

Gov. Chet Culver kicks off a train tour through western Iowa in downtown Des Moines Wednesday morning.

The governor, who will seek his second term next year, embarked Wednesday on a 13-city whistlestop tour across western Iowa, billed as promoting the development of passenger rail service from Chicago to Omaha. All four of the scheduled stops were in counties he lost in 2006, and at each stop he was greeted by crowds of supporters. The day will be capped with a fundraiser in Council Bluffs for the Pottawattamie County Democrats featuring a special hometown guest, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal.

It may look like a political campaign, but Culver quickly dismissed such speculation.

“We’re going to have plenty of time to campaign next summer,” Culver said. “The Republican primary isn’t until June. I’m just trying to do my job and work hard right now. When I figure out who my opponent is after the primary we’ll have a very spirited race. But for now, it is about getting things done and setting the politics aside.”

The focus of the day was on passenger rail, specifically, linking Chicago to Des Moines and eventually Omaha. It’s a concept whose time has come, Culver said.

“We’ve never been this close,” Culver said. “It’s never looked this positive. I think it starts with President Obama’s leadership. He wants this thing personally. He said when he was in Newton that he wants to get Des Moines and Chicago linked. You couldn’t have a better advocate.”

It will eventually cost the state of Iowa tens of millions of dollars, money that will be used to update the necessary infrastructure to support trains traveling 79 mph. Right now, freight trains can only travel approximately 49 mph, according to Jim Larew, the governor’s chief legal counsel. But for the first time ever Iowa’s General Assembly approved a line item in the state’s budget specifically for passenger rail service.

Culver brought his children along for the whistlestop trip through western Iowa.

“So it is no longer a question of whether or not we appropriate money for passenger rail, it is a matter of how much,” he said.

Culver said his I-JOBS bonding initiative passed during the 2009 legislative session included $3 million for a feasibility study on expanding passenger train service. Iowa officials also will be competing for federal passenger rail funds via the economic stimulus package.

“We are pushing as hard as possible to get this done as quickly as we can,” Culver said, later adding: “It’s one step at a time, and we have a lot of studies and investments that have to be made.”

The only way to get this done, Culver said, is by putting political differences aside and working together, something he hopes will get a jump start with his western Iowa trip.

“We’ve got Republicans and Democrats on this train,” he said. “We’re going to be meeting with all Iowans today regardless of party. That’s why I think passenger rail is so exciting, because it takes all of us pulling together to make it a reality. So we’re actually celebrating unity today in a lot of ways.”

Culver said he plans to go on two more train trips in the coming months — one through southeastern Iowa in late summer and another up through Waterloo as early as next month. No dates have been set for either trip.