Officials question why Indiana initiative didn't have more rail projects
by Nicole Duarte
published by the Times of Northwest Indiana January 26, 2006
Transportation infrastructure is the lifeblood of America's communities, Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian, Miss., told a luncheon gathering of transportation enthusiasts Wednesday at the Union League Club in Chicago.
The Indiana and Midwest High Speed Rail Associations were sponsors of the luncheon.
Smith, in the thick of hurricane rebuilding in the Gulf Coast, told the crowd there's both "crisis and opportunity" in storm-damaged Mississippi and in transportation in general.
"I think we have a tremendous opportunity to really reconnect America," Smith said. "Our people travel far more miles in more trips than the Japanese and the Europeans do, and yet we have fewer options."
Smith is a former Amtrak board member and an outspoken proponent of rail transportation.
Smith's home state provided a potent example. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour appointed a commission of engineers and transportation planners to make rebuilding recommendations for damaged communities. The purpose, Smith said, was to avoid rebuilding the same mistakes.
The commission ultimately recommended that Mississippi invest in multi-mode transportation, especially along the coast, Smith said.
Interstate 10 on the coast of Mississippi was bumper-to-bumper for miles before the hurricanes, said Smith, declaring that "rail is a critical component to getting people out of a city in times of disaster," especially for people without ready access to cars or air travel.
Rail improvements have additional benefits, Smith said, citing a U.S. Department of Transportation estimate that for every billion dollars invested into rail projects, 47,000 jobs were created.
More generally, he encouraged legislators in all states to "look beyond their four-year term" at projects like rail expansion that might take longer than that to complete but would be community assets for decades.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Monday that a Spanish-Australian consortium, Statewide Mobility Partners, had bid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road for 75 years. The money has been earmarked for more than 200 transportation projects in the governor's Major Moves campaign, currently being deliberated in the Indiana General Assembly.
Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, wondered why the vast majority of Major Moves projects were road and highway projects.
"People recognized that the Dan Ryan Expressway isn't going to get any better, they recognize that the Stevenson Expressway is not going to get any better. The only way to improve (intrastate) connections is with rail," said Harnish.
Daniels' office could not be reached Wednesday afternoon for comment.
Luncheon organizer Dennis Hodges, of the Indiana High Speed Rail Association , said that highway projects require between $18 and $30 million per mile to build, while rail costs only $2 million per mile.
IHSRA is a supporter of the Midwest Regional Rail System , a project developed by a consortium of departments of transportation in nine Midwestern states. The plan would connect existing, slower rights-of-way to new high-speed corridors in order to create a Midwestern passenger rail network. The Midwest does not presently have any high-speed train service.
At the hub of the proposed network is Chicago, with trains servicing Gary, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Indianapolis. Trains traveling at 110 mph would carry passengers to cities such as Kansas City, Des Moines and Minneapolis. The rail project is projected to cost $7.7 billion over 10 years under an 80/20 federal-state funding program, such as those that currently fund highways and airports.
Indiana would be directly served by 600 of the 3,000 miles in the proposed system, Hodges said.
Thus far, many legislators haven't had the political will to move rail transportation projects forward, said Hodges. In order to foster that will, the Indiana High Speed Rail Association will use events such as Smith's presentation to promote awareness about the subject.
Looking forward, IHSRA plans to employ the pro bono services of Washington lobbying firm Barnes and Thornburg to put high speed rail on the radar of the 2007 Congress.