CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA (AP) -- Backers of an Amtrak route from Chicago to Iowa City are optimistic word on funding will come soon.
Tammy Nicholson of Iowa's office of rail transportation told The Gazette that it's "leaning in that direction."
Illinois will spend $45 million on a passenger route from Chicago to the Quad Cities. Once Amtrak reaches the Quad Cities, it's 65 miles to Iowa City.
Nicholson says she expects an announcement soon on a joint application by Iowa and Illinois for a $62.9 million federal grant to get the passenger trains rolling over the route by 2012.
Iowa received a $1 million grant to study extending the service to Des Moines and eventually Omaha, Neb.
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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