The Iowa Interstate Railroad is a Class II regional railroad operating in the central United States. The railroad is owned by Railroad Development Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. History The railroad was formed on November 2, 1984, using former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad tracks between Chicago, Illinois and Omaha, Nebraska, four years after the Rock Island folded. It was in partnership with real estate firm Heartland Rail Corporation that the IAIS was able to operate. Heartland purchased the right-of-way and infrastructure for $31 million (of which, $15 million was a loan from the Iowa Railway Finance Authority), and then leased it to IAIS for operations. The IAIS and the railroad infrastructure were purchased from Heartland by Railroad Development Company of Pittsburgh, PA in 2003. In recognition of the railroad's Rock Island Railroad heritage, the IAIS logo uses a shape similar to the original railroad's logo and has also painted two of its General Electric ES44AC locomotives (513 and 516) in Rock Island inspired paint schemes. Operations When the IAIS took control of the track, the former Rock Island signal system was already damaged beyond repair due to sitting dormant for several years. Operations on the railroad are primarily controlled by track warrants rather than signals as a result. Trains are dispatched from the company's HQ in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where a new dispatching office was completed in 2016. IAIS uses Wabtec's Train Management and Dispatching System (TMDS), the same dispatching software used by several Class I railroads, including the BNSF and KCS. The railroad's mainline is roughly a straight line between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois, with a branch line connecting Bureau to Peoria, Illinois. The mainline is separated into 4 Subdivisions: Council Bluffs Subdivision (Council Bluffs to Des Moines, Iowa) Newton Subdivision (East Des Moines to South Amana, Iowa) Iowa City Subdivision (South Amana to Silvis, Illinois) Blue Island Subdivision (Silvis to Bureau Junction, Illinois) The railroad also includes the: Peoria Subdivision (Bureau Junction to Peoria, Illinois) Cedar Rapids Subdivision (South Amana to Cedar Rapids, Iowa). This line is owned by the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railroad, but dispatched and operated by the Iowa Interstate. The Iowa Interstate operates from Bureau to Chicago over the former Rock Island tracks controlled by CSX and Metra. In Chicago the IAIS owns two yard facilities, Burr Oak Yard and Evans Yard (the site of former rail car builder Evans),