Mayors, Business Community Rally For Rail
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEight mayors from Indiana and Ohio have taken another key step in a plan calling for high-speed rail service between Chicago and Columbus, Ohio and running through northern Indiana. The group has issued a memorandum of agreement to develop the Northern Indiana/Ohio Passenger Rail initiative with freight rail operators and right-of-way owners along the proposed route. They are pushing for an environmental impact study for the project. The total cost of the proposal is estimated at more than $1 billion.
You can view a copy of the MOA by clicking here.
An economic impact study spearheaded by the Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association Inc. last year estimated the corridor could result in nearly 27,000 jobs over 30 years.
Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter says the group is preparing for the next steps in what he believes is a “needed” service. You can hear a portion of his interview with Inside INdiana Business by clicking here.
Sources: The Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association Inc., Inside INdiana Business, The Cities of Warsaw, Plymouth and Fort Wayne
August 6, 2014
News Release
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Fort Wayne, Ind. – Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry and the mayors of eight other cities announced today that they will sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) within the week calling for cooperation in development of a Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus passenger rail corridor.
The Indiana cities include Fort Wayne, Warsaw, Plymouth, Valparaiso and Gary. The Ohio cities represented are Columbus, Marysville, Kenton and Lima.
The MOA calls for the parties “…to systematically and incrementally develop the higher speed rail (“HSR”) intercity system in cooperation with existing freight rail operators and owners of right‐of–way along a corridor from Chicago to Columbus through northern Indiana hereafter known as the Northern Indiana/Ohio High Speed Rail Initiative.”
Specifically, the MOA resolves that the parties will work together to secure funding for the federally required Environmental Impact Study (EIS), the next step in developing the passenger rail line. The EIS would examine the preliminary engineering, technical analysis, service planning and environmental impacts along several different routes in order to determine the preferred route for locating the rail lines. Once complete, the EIS would be submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration. This study could begin in late 2014 and would take 18 months to complete.
“This is a big step forward in the effort to bring passenger rail back to our community,” said Mayor Henry. “The Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus corridor will be good for citizens throughout northern Indiana and central Ohio. It will increase transportation alternatives and help boost economic development and tourism.”
A rail corridor feasibility study concluded that approximately 2.1 million riders would use the Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus route in 2020, with that number growing to more than three million in 2040. The study also estimated that for every $1 of investment, $1.70 would be generated in economic return through job growth and increased property values. The study was completed in 2013 by Transportation Economics & Management Systems, Inc. (TEMS) for the Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association.
The 300-mile-long passenger rail corridor would operate up to 12 trains daily, each direction, along the route. Express services would link downtown Chicago to Columbus in less than four hours.
Source: The City of Fort Wayne