The Final Run of The Hawkeye Express
Well, a few days ago, the news came that no one wanted to hear. The University of Iowa Athletic Department and Iowa Northern announced that there will be no more Hawkeye Express.
For fifteen years, Iowa Northern ran The Hawkeye Express between overflow parking lots in Coralville to Kinnick Stadium. In the Rock Island days, trains of football fans ran from as far away as Davenport and Des Moines. For many years, the tracks next to the stadium remained active, but with no passenger trains. In 2004, the train returned, originally running with the Colorado Ski Train equipment before Iowa Northern purchased six ex-Metra gallery coaches.
The ten minute ride solved the parking problems that have plagued Kinnick Stadium for years. Thousands of fans rode the train at every Iowa home game. I rode the train once in 2010, but because of my involvement with the Hawkeye Marching Band, I never got to see the train during the regular season. However, after the last game of the 2019, one of my friends ( / trainboy2448 ) picked me up and we went out to see the train on it's deadhead move from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids. We saw taking passengers out of the stadium for the last time, and then caught it going west at Oxford.
Little did we know, but that would be the last ever run of The Hawkeye Express. Iowa Northern still owns the cars and uses them occasionally for other things, but the tradition of taking fans directly to the games is sadly gone. Hopefully the train can return some day, but for now, The Hawkeye Express is now just a piece of history.
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