Imagine you live on the north end of town, close to Pioneer Park, maybe in Dunlap. You get up in the morning, wear your corporate uniform, and hop in your car, but instead of driving all the way downtown to your office, you only drive to the rail crossing at Pioneer Parkway. There, you find a parking lot with a small train depot — a “park and ride.” You park your car, head into the depot and have a cup of coffee and pick up a paper at the newsstand.

Then the train arrives. You get on a 45-passenger commuter railcar that looks something like this:

The railcar takes you downtown, making stops at a few places (like Junction City) along the way. The car may run right down by the riverfront, or it could run along a track that would be built down the center of Jefferson Street and meet up with the CityLink transit center at Harrison.

As you’re traveling, you enjoy a smooth ride during which time you can read the paper, check your e-mail, conduct business on your cell phone, or just relax. No driving hassles, no fighting traffic. You enjoy the same ease going home after work. Evenings and weekends, you can take the same train to basketball or hockey games, concerts, Civic Center or other downtown events, shopping in the Heights or at the new and improved Junction City, etc.

If the service in this scenario were available to you, would you use it?

That’s what the Illinois Prairie Railroad Foundation would like to know. They’re investigating the feasibility of commuter rail in Peoria, and they’re betting that people would love it. So, I’d like to do a little non-scientific research and see what my readers think of the idea. What say you?