Linda's grandmother died last month at the age of 98. About three years ago, she gave us the following account of a day of family fun that she still remembered vividly, although it was from her distant childhood.

One summer day when grandma was about 10 years old, which would have been around the year 1920, she and her family climbed onto a wagon pulled by two horses and traveled from their farm near Wick, Iowa to the train station in Martensdale. From there they traveled by rail northward to downtown Des Moines, a distance of some 20 miles. They next boarded a streetcar (a street railway car--electric powered, of course) and rode out from downtown, east, to the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Grandma and her family had a fun day at the Fair. She recalled that they spent what was then a very large sum of money, about twenty dollars, on food and entertainment.

Later in the day, probably well before dark, they took a streetcar back to downtown, got on another train to Martensdale, and, leaving the train in that small town, drove their horse-drawn wagon back to the farm. The railroad, Grandma recalled, was the main line of the Northwestern. There is no railroad, freight or passenger, in Martensdale today.

Now, Grandma and her family did not have the convenience of a personal motorized transportation device--an automobile--which in theory allows people to travel when and where they choose, independent of the set schedules of public transportation modes such as railroads. But have you ever tried to park your car at the Iowa State Fair? If you have, you know that the supposed convenience of auto travel disappears in a fog of car exhaust when thousands of people all try to drive their cars to the same place at the same time.

The fact is, Iowa had a better, safer, more convenient, more energy-efficient transportation system in 1920 than we do today. The 1920 system was based on railroads. Today's "system," such as it is, depends on cars, highways, and parking lots. We have made major changes in transportation since the 1920s, but we have not made progress.

Feel free to call it socialism, but what we need to do is take the billions that are now going to highway construction and spend that money on rebuilding our railroads, so that even small towns like Martensdale, Iowa have rail service. After all, the Interstate Highway system is pure socialism: it was planned and built by the government, using the power of government to raise money by taxation; the government power of eminent domain was used for land acquisition; and the Interstate Highway system is owned by the government.

Government officials in Iowa and elsewhere need to be as willing to spend money on transportation that makes sense--railroads--as they are to spend money on highways.

I hope this isn't disagreeable, but solving problems requires first identifying them. And convincing people of what needs to be done requires language that is, well, convincing. (Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin is a brilliant example of identifying a problem: slavery. And it did a lot to convince people to do something about it. And it did that by using the power of language. By the way, I don't recall Harriet Beecher Stowe saying a single nice thing about slavery. Her book was very disagreeable--to slave owners.)

Thanks for posting this news about rail transport in the Legislature, Charlie.

Tom

In a message dated 2/28/2009 3:35:36 P.M. Central Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

A Step Closer to P
This is reprinted from Speaker Murphy's newsletter:

A Step Closer to Passenger Rail Service
The House Transportation Committee approved a bill this week to take advantage of plans to expand passenger rail service in Iowa. House Study Bill 116 creates a definition for passenger rail service, as well as bringing more rail oversight to the Department of Transportation.
Language in the bill defines passenger rail service to include long-distance, intercity and commuter passenger transportation, which is provided on rails. The bill also authorizes the director of the Department of Transportation to enter into agreements with other rail operators, local jurisdictions, and other states concerning passenger rail services through Iowa.

IT ,HOWEVER, PROVIDES NO FUNDING

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