Sorry, but "UNI" is the University of Northern Iowa, which is in Cedar Falls. U of I is the University of Iowa and is in Iowa City.
If we cud jus stp usg abrvs w'd b a lt bttr off.
When the flapping lips sportcasters talk about UNI they often say it such that it sounds like they are saying "You and I" as in, "U N I lost the game." And I didn't even know I was playing!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Uni is an almost worldwide abbreviation for a university. I am quite aware of UNI (University of Northern Iowa. I said Uni Iowa, different matter.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Iowa and Illinois get confusing when it comes to universities.
UNI in Iowa is University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls.
UNI in Illinois is University of Northern Illinois at DeKalb.
All reminds me of T-shirts sold at my alma mater back in the day proclaiming: University of Iowa, Idaho City, Ohio. That wasn't all that far from some people's perception of the geography. But I digress
CJtrainguy Iowa and Illinois get confusing when it comes to universities. UNI in Iowa is University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls. UNI in Illinois is University of Northern Illinois at DeKalb.
Northern Illinois University at DeKalb is fortunately NIU.
Schlimm,
You are absolutely right. I knew that. I stand corrected.
schlimm Uni is an almost worldwide abbreviation for a university. I am quite aware of UNI (University of Northern Iowa. I said Uni Iowa, different matter.
Interesting. I have seen "U" and "UNIV."/"Univ." as the abbreviation for University, but I do not remember ever seeing just "Uni"... At least not in my admittedly sieve of a memory!
So I Googled, "What is the abbreviation for University".
I found several answers hither and yon and all indicate that "Uni." is U.K. usage and "Univ." is American usage.
Since I am an American (no brag, just fact) and we are discussing Iowa, (an American subject - albeit on an international forum) and since the internet is notorious for lacking in respect for names, acronyms and abbreviations by using lower case letters for nearly everything and people generally being lazy about hitting the shift key or proof-reading their internet missives, I will tend toward seeing "Uni" as being somewhat suspect as to meaning and will probably assume that it means the most common local usage, thus "Uni" was seen as University of Northern Iowa. The apparent redundant usage of "Iowa" after the letters should have kicked my brain in the shins, given that you, (unlike me,) don't tend to make such mistakes in your missives here.
Of course, if you had placed a period (".") after the three letters, as in, "Uni. Iowa", I might have seen the letters as an abbreviation for University, instead of a simple typo of not holding down the shift key long enough. I also note that my spell checker flags the three letters as misspelled if I don't put the period after it, so even Microsoft thinks it should have a period after it to be a valid abbreviation (but that might not be much of an endorsement based on what people think of Microsoft!).
I dunno.... I'm one state west of Iowa. If someone uses the word "Uni", we'd most likely think of a guy with one, big, bushy eyebrow.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
The University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Southern Illinois University at Carbonale, and Western Illinois university at Macomb all have passenger rail..A large number of students at the University of Iowa hail from the Chicago Metro area. There is agitation to extend proposed passenger rail from Moline to the Iowa River at Iowa City.
The state of Illinois also plods along with plans for passenger rail service to Dububue. If a large enough number of students from the Chicago metro area attended the University of Nothern Iowa, would there be agitation to extend a reborn Land 'O Corn from the Mississippi to the Cedar River in Cedar Falls?
Somewhat qualified speculation as I don't have insight into what the Illinois DOT really (or the governor's office or anyone else involved in planning this) thinks. So far the rail connections to U of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Southern Ill. U. at Carbondale, Western Ill U at Macomb and Illinois State at Bloomington/Normal seem more happy coincidence than the result of a plan to connect all the universities with rail. If that was the case, NIU at DeKalb would have passenger rail at their doorstep and not ending over in the next county.
At the same time, there has been talk of East-West passenger rail that would connect the universities from Quad Cities through Champaign.
The coming passenger service to Dubuque I think is more to benefit the northwest corner of Illinois than anything. It may or may not make it across the river into Iowa ever so slightly.
A revived passenger line west of Dubuque, IA to Cedar Falls would be nice, but I don't see that happening until Des Moines gets passenger rail (and is excited about it). Independence, Manchester and Dyersville are not large enough in and of themselves to fill a train. From an Iowa perspective, regional/local passenger service Cedar Falls/Waterloo - Vinton - Cedar Rapids - Iowa City would be much more interesting. There's plenty of commuting going on in the I-380 corridor.
Just my 3 cents…
Victrola1 The University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Southern Illinois University at Carbonale, and Western Illinois university at Macomb all have passenger rail..A large number of students at the University of Iowa hail from the Chicago Metro area. There is agitation to extend proposed passenger rail from Moline to the Iowa River at Iowa City. The state of Illinois also plods along with plans for passenger rail service to Dububue. If a large enough number of students from the Chicago metro area attended the University of Nothern Iowa, would there be agitation to extend a reborn Land 'O Corn from the Mississippi to the Cedar River in Cedar Falls?
No doubt, because "the environment" is (a) one of the rallying cries of college/university communities and (b) passenger trains are supposedly good for it.
Actual ridership would likely be something else.
Iowa is lousy with universities and colleges -- private and public -- from border to border. Dubuque itself has several -- perhaps the reason Illinois is willing to pay for jumping the river there but not at Davenport? (Or is it only that a train terminating at East Dubuque, Ill., would be just too silly?)
dakotafred No doubt, because "the environment" is (a) one of the rallying cries of college/university communities and (b) passenger trains are supposedly good for it. Actual ridership would likely be something else. Iowa is lousy with universities and colleges -- private and public -- from border to border.
Iowa is lousy with universities and colleges -- private and public -- from border to border.
You appear to be hostile to the possibility that college students would patronize passenger trains, if the services were properly targeted. Actual statistics have been given on this thread that show how that has worked very well in downstate Illinois.
dakotafred Iowa is lousy with universities and colleges -- private and public -- from border to border. Dubuque itself has several -- perhaps the reason Illinois is willing to pay for jumping the river there but not at Davenport? (Or is it only that a train terminating at East Dubuque, Ill., would be just too silly?)
Iowa did come up with some of the money needed for a Dubuque station. The most recent hold-up for the Blackhawk service has been from the host railroad, CN/IC.
I've seen where there has been some grant money and local funds come in towards the station in Dubuque. Just haven't seen Iowa DOT or other Iowa state funding. But I may be missing something.
I think you are correct: local and grant, not state funding. Perhaps given Dubique's close ties to the Illinois economy, the rest of the state of Iowa lets them 'go fish' for dollars?
schlimm dakotafred No doubt, because "the environment" is (a) one of the rallying cries of college/university communities and (b) passenger trains are supposedly good for it. Actual ridership would likely be something else. Iowa is lousy with universities and colleges -- private and public -- from border to border. You appear to be hostile to the possibility that college students would patronize passenger trains, if the services were properly targeted. Actual statistics have been given on this thread that show how that has worked very well in downstate Illinois.
dakotafredYes, you gave passenger numbers for Champaign, Macomb, Quincy and Galesburg, but no breakout for college students. (I'm sure there is no such stat.)
Good point, Fred.
Amtrak may have those demographics or should if they have any concept of marketing. In any case they are not public. But who do you actually think boards the trains? Just townies? And unlike when we were in college, many students return to there home turf (or head to the big city) on many weekends, not just at break time. And Carbondale, IL, home of SIU, had 106,000 boardings/alightings on the four daily trains in 2012. Again, around the extended weekends, many students are part of that 106K. It's not just townies who ride the train.
I was just perusing Amtrak's feasibility study for the Quad Cities - Iowa City segment. At a 79mph build out, it's operating close to covering expenses and the projected ridership is respectable. Now sometimes projected ridership is a "happy number", but even more frequently once the service is instituted, the projections are quickly surpassed. Amtrak is projecting using 2-3 car trains to Iowa City for starters.
In another document I ran across the number of riders from Osceola, IA. About 14,000/year. 2 trains a day at less than optimal times. That's almost 20 per train. But Osceola isn't that big and you really have to want to take the train to drive down there from Des Moines or Ames (I've done that for myself and others). So 20 per train isn't bad for a city with a population of just under 5,000. Now translate that to a train going to a real metro area and the number goes way up…
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