If you live in Lincoln, there’s a good chance you’ve had to go to Omaha at least once. If you’re lucky, those times are few and far between and you have a car or some form of reliable transportation. 

If you aren’t as lucky, you may be one of the many folks who either has to commute between the cities for work or worse, you don’t have a reliable way to get there, stretching the commute to an unworkable length. 

As the populations of both cities grow, so too do the number of commuters and tourists traveling between the Omaha and Lincoln metro areas. To accommodate, it’s time to reconsider a high-speed commuter railway between Omaha and Lincoln. 

In January, Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln introduced Legislative Bill 991, hoping to fund an updated Department of Transportation study on the likely costs and impacts of a high-speed commuter rail between Omaha and Lincoln. LB991 follows a similar proposal from Morfeld in 2020, which the legislature indefinitely postponed.

On April 20th, the legislature indefinitely postponed LB991 as well. 

The bill aimed to update the original 2003 study funded by the Department of Transportation to assess the impacts of a high-speed commuter rail. The study also considered bus routes between Fremont and Omaha as well as Blair and Omaha. 

Morfeld believes the old study is outdated, claiming the previous study contains estimates based on older technology and infrastructure. The study gives renovation costs reflecting needed updates to existing railways at the time that he believes have been improved upon since. 

Despite these setbacks, it’s important to consider some of the ways a high-speed rail could make life easier for the many metro-area commuters and even non-commuters. 

Lincoln and Omaha are about an hour apart by car, but folks who don’t have access to a reliable means of transportation can find this gap near impossible. Aside from being a more than $40 round trip, the hour-long trip estimate assumes minimal levels of traffic and no detours. 

This is also heavily dependent on available rides. The 2003 study estimated the high-speed commuter rail could offer trains spaced 15 minutes apart during peak commuting periods, a marked advantage to the twice daily bus trips currently available.  

For current drivers, the benefits extend to you too. Reduction of traffic is an added bonus of the commuter rail, as the study found that by reducing the demand on the roads, traffic congestion can also improve. In addition, as counterintuitive as it sounds, the more money poured into highway infrastructure, the worse traffic gets. Projects spending money on widening roads may end up immediately meeting an influx of traffic to boot. 

Since expansion of roads is associated with increased miles driven, options such as expanding bus routes and carpooling can also show promise. However, they still contribute to and suffer from road expansion in the long run. 

A rail is the logical choice as it reduces the amount of people on the roads and avoids traffic congestion entirely.  

Commuting isn’t the only use for a rail system. Every Saturday, thousands of Husker fans make the drive into Lincoln from out of the city to catch the game, and it’s no secret that Husker game days are packed. In fact, Memorial Stadium holds 90,000 people, leading to some referring to a packed Memorial Stadium as “Nebraska’s third largest city.”

This popularity also comes with serious logistical issues concerning traffic, road safety and parking. A high-speed rail could be an immense boon for the gameday experience, likely alleviating some of the congestion on the way to Memorial by removing the need to find parking.  

Instead of enduring long lines of traffic ending in a frantic search for overpriced parking, a railway could be a fun and stress-free way to make it to Memorial for a fraction of the cost. 

A high-speed rail also presents a huge opportunity to save lives. For many sports fans, and specifically Huskers fans, game day plans can include alcohol. This is absolutely not a sin, but the problem arises after the game ends and many fans find themselves homebound while still under the influence.  

For folks outside of Lincoln, it’s not feasible to simply Uber home, and with little to no other options they risk the drive despite having drank at the game. Impaired driving accounts for a disproportionate amount of traffic deaths, and a high-speed rail would provide a much needed alternative. 

With the death of LB991, we’re a good way out from having this become a reality, but something has to give. Even if Nebraska doesn’t add a train line, this should be a wake-up call for Nebraskans that public transportation between Omaha and Lincoln is lacking, and it can be fixed through better public transportation options. 

Even though LB991 is dead, we shouldn’t let the dream of accessible and flexible public transportation die with it. A high-speed commuter railway between Omaha and Lincoln would save money, facilitate travel between two rapidly growing cities and make Husker game days a safer and less stressful experience. 

This article was produced by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Find more at news.unl.edu.