Iowa City Press-Citizen
It's not hard to get Gene Crosset talking about passenger rail, but don't call him a "train nut." He prefers the title "foamer."
"It comes from the foaming at the mouth when we see trains," Crosset said.
For decades, Crosset, a 78-year-old living in Davenport, has seen plans for an Iowa City-to-Chicago passenger rail line become a perennial conversation, only to disappear like a train heading into a tunnel.
The possibility exists again, after Amtrak released a map this month featuring new and enhanced lines, part of the $80 billion President Joe Biden designated for rail in his American Jobs Plan. The map included one bright blue line that dog-legged west from Chicago through Moline with a terminus in Iowa City.