By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
An express bus system carrying people to and from work could come through Greenwood and Franklin in the next decade.
Commuters who live in Fishers and on the northeast side of Indianapolis would get the first chance to ditch their cars and ride to work in Indianapolis on a high-speed train.
Residents throughout central Indiana, including Johnson County, would help pay for it.
A regional transportation planning organization is proposing a mass transit system around Indianapolis. The group is looking for preliminary approval this year, and the first system could be in place in 2012.
That first system doesn't include a route to Johnson County, but in the next four to nine years, Greenwood and Franklin residents could ride an express bus to downtown Indianapolis. That would be replaced eventually with a rapid transit system, such as a high-speed elevated train similar to the L in Chicago, said Mike Dearing, manager of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization. The group helps local governments plan and fund transportation projects, such as road improvements, mass transportation systems and walking and biking trails.
In late summer or early fall, Dearing will ask the organization's overseeing body, made up of officials from the 35 cities, towns and counties included in the group, to approve to the idea. That board would also decide on the route and type of transit that would be used.
Once the concept is approved, Dearing would go to the Federal Transit Administration for final approval and funding.
But federal dollars won't cover the whole project, he said.
The rest could be covered through a regional tax, paid by people throughout central Indiana.
What that tax would be and who would pay it has not been decided, he said.
About 20 local residents and officials attended a meeting Thursday to hear more about transportation issues in the area. Much of the presentation from the organization was about the future of mass transit in the area.
Some grumbled about another tax that could be added on.
Ron Deer, a Greenwood City Council member who represents Johnson County on one of the organization's boards, said Johnson County needs to think as part of a region, not as an area separate from Indianapolis.
"We have to help pay for it because they're going to help pay for it when it comes here," he said, referring to the regional tax that would help build the entire system.
"Maybe it's not your problem, but maybe you've got children, grandchildren that are going to work in Indianapolis and can't pay $9 a gallon (for fuel)."
A Franklin man worried whether Johnson County would ever get a rapid transit system.
"I worry the focus will always be the northeast corridor," said Craig Wells, a Franklin resident. "I want to know it will eventually come south and west."
Others said the group would have difficulty selling the idea to residents who are attached to their cars.
Dearing said those concerns are ones the organization is trying to address.
"We have become embedded in living in that highway mindset," he said.
He hopes that once a first system is built, other communities will see its success and want one for their residents.
"People will see it and say, 'We want ours now,'" he said.
The Indianapolis area needs a mass transit system, instead of continually adding more lanes onto highways and having motorists pay more and more for fuel, he said.
Keeping the routes in one area, such as northeast Indianapolis, would not be profitable because it wouldn't greatly increase the number of riders. Taking the route to another area, such as the south or west sides, would, Dearing said.
If the idea is approved, the organization will need to do many more studies, such as the environmental, social and cultural impacts of the system. That will likely include public meetings in the near future.
The organization can study other potential routes as the first is being built, possibly focusing on the south side next if the need is there, Dearing said.