150 yrs; UP, Rock, GrWest, W Pacific, BN

By Bill Kelly, NET News

June 12th, 2012

Omaha, NE – As Union Pacific Railroad celebrates its 150th birthday some are considering the past and the future of passenger rail service in America. In 1862 President Lincoln signed legislation that launched America’s first coast to coast railroad and gave U.P. its start as a Nebraska business. It has not carried passengers commercially for years, but a new push in Iowa could bring a new line to Nebraska, complementing the limited service offered by Amtrak.

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“The peak of the travel was in 1944 when we had 64 trains a day,” said Bob Fahey, a tour guide and unofficial rail historian at the Durham Museum, housed in the former Union Station. The museum took over the massive art deco temple to rail travel and preserves the main terminal building. Fahey pointed out that at it’s peak, “seven railroads came into the station, so it was just wall-to-wall people”

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Historians set the birth of cross-country trains, both passenger and freight, in 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act. The law directed two companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, to build a trans-continental railroad. The decision assured Nebraska’s prominent place in rail history and provided. Union Pacific with significant financial help from the United States government to create the rail line.

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Forty years later, there is talk of breathing new life into cross-country rail travel. The state of Iowa is promoting a 100 mile-an-hour high-speed rail line which would follow the Interstate 80 corridor on an existing path with upgraded track. Service would be available on points between Chicago to the east and Omaha on the west. Studies are still underway to determine how many stops would be included and in which communities.