Puneet Varma (Editor)

Iowa Interstate Railroad

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Reporting mark
  
IAIS

Website
  
http://www.iaisrr.com/

Date of operation
  
1984

Dates of operation
  
1984–

Founded
  
1984

Iowa Interstate Railroad httpssmediacacheak0pinimgcomoriginals34

Locale
  
Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska

Track gauge
  
4 ft 8 ⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

Headquarters
  
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States

Parent organization
  
Railroad Development Corporation

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Iowa interstate railroad cbbis featuring rare and foreign power


The Iowa Interstate Railroad (reporting mark IAIS) is a Class II railroad operating in the central United States. The railroad is owned by Railroad Development Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Contents

Iowa interstate railroad at coralville iowa february 20 2016


History

The railroad was formed on November 2, 1984, using former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad tracks between Chicago, Illinois, and Omaha, Nebraska. It was in partnership with real estate firm Heartland Rail Corporation that the IAIS was able to operate. Heartland purchased the right-of-way and infrastructure for $31 million (of which, $15 million was a loan from the Iowa Railway Finance Authority), and then leased it to IAIS for operations.

The railroad's mainline is roughly a straight line between these two terminal cities with a branch line connecting Bureau to Peoria, Illinois. In recognition of the railroad's Rock Island Railroad heritage, the IAIS logo uses a shape similar to the original railroad's logo.

Operations

Operations on the railroad are controlled by track warrants rather than signals. When the IAIS took control of the track, the former Rock Island signal system was already damaged beyond repair, so the trains were operated by warrant control. Trains are dispatched from the company's HQ in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where a new dispatching office was completed in 2016.

The Iowa Interstate is the only Class II railroad in the US that has connections to every Class I railroad, affording its customers a global reach not offered by other regional railroads.

Amtrak

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the IAIS mainline has been identified as a potential route for high speed passenger train service between Wyanet, Illinois (where the IAIS could be connected to the BNSF Railway), the Quad Cities and Iowa City, Iowa, as part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative (MRRI). The ultimate goal of the MRRI is to establish passenger train routes in a hub-and-spoke formation with Chicago as the hub that allow for speeds up to and above 110 mph (177 km/h). This project has been stalled due to various reasons including cost, funding and changes in the political winds. Negotiations and planning for the project continue.

Motive power

IAIS uses 42 locomotives and two slugs to power its trains:

  • 4 EMD SD38-2 (Numbered 150-153)
  • 17 GE ES44AC (Numbered 500-516); unit 513 is painted in a Rock Island commemorative scheme; unit 516 is painted in a Rock Island inspired 30th anniversary paint scheme
  • 1 EMD GP38 (Numbered 601)
  • 18 EMD GP38-2 (Numbered 700-703; 705; 707-708; 710-716; 718-721)
  • 2 Slugs (Numbered 650 and 651)

    • 601 and 650 are permanently mated, as are 721 and 651

    Company officers

    Current Officers

  • Jerry Lipka, President and CEO
  • Joe Parsons, Chief Operating Officer
  • Chad Lambi, Chief Engineer
  • Andrew Reid, Chief Mechanical Officer
  • Greg Wilson Jr, Superintendent of Cars
  • Al Satunas, Chief Transportation Officer
  • Tom Meierhoff, Director of Rules and Training
  • Adam Sutherland, Director of Safety and Security

    • Former Presidents of the Iowa Interstate Railroad:

  • Doug Christy
  • Jon R. Roy
  • Dennis H. Miller

    • References

    Iowa Interstate Railroad Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA