CAMANCHE, Iowa — The city of Camanche has rejected an offer for $200,000 from Canadian Pacific to mitigate the impact of the pending CP-Kansas City Southern deal, with Mayor Austin Pruett telling KWQC-TV the offer is “very offensive.”
The funds would have addressed closing two of the seven grade crossings in the community of 4,570, located along the Mississippi River just southwest of Clinton, Iowa.
Farther south, three other communities on CP’s line along the Mississippi have reached agreements worth a total of $16 million [see “Bettendorf, Iowa, approves agreement …,” Trains News Wire, July 7, 2022; “Former mayor urges Davenport …,” News Wire, Aug. 5, 2022; “Davenport, Iowa, council approves deal …,” News Wire, Aug. 11, 2022]. CP has estimated freight traffic on the route will increase from eight to 22 trains a day after the merger.
Camanche officials wonder why they aren’t receiving comparable offers. “Maybe we’re too small for them to worry about,” City Administrator Andrew Kida told the station. “For the larger communities, they certainly are doling out a lot of money for those issues.” Kida estimated it would cost $2.5 million to create a quiet zone in the community, plus additional costs to add crossing gates where they do not currently exist and cameras to allow emergency services to know which crossings are blocked by trains.
CP spokesman Andy Cummings told the station “discussions are ongoing” with cities including Camanche.
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