Hopes of high-speed rail rest on pending bill

By JOE GERRETY, Journal & Courier
jgerrety@journalandcourier.com
and ZACH DUNKIN
zach.dunkin@indystar.com

For the past two years, Helen Hudson's English students at Crawfordsville High School have been promoting passenger rail service.

The effort has included cleaning up the town's Amtrak station and taking trips to Evansville and Washington, D.C., to advocate for support of expanded passenger rail service. This spring, Hudson's students promoted a C'ville Rides the Train day -- a one-day Amtrak trip to Chicago for shopping, museum visits and other activities.

It's not sure whether Crawfordsville would be on a proposed high-speed rail route that would carry passengers between Chicago and Cincinnati -- through Lafayette -- in four hours. But Hudson thinks there's reason to get excited about the prospect.