By Doug LeDuc, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly
dougl@fwbusiness.com
The possibility of federal funding is reviving interest in passenger rail service for Fort Wayne.
In a few weeks, a couple of the transportation mode's strongest area supporters plan to announce the formation of the Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association.
"It's been gratifying to see the president sign a bill that has funding for not only high-speed rail but for ... linking more cities to Amtrak," said Geoff Paddock, who has worked with Tom Hayhurst to found the organization.
Hayhurst is a doctor and former Fort Wayne City Council member. Paddock, who runs the city's Headwaters Park, has served on boards of the Northeastern Indiana Regional Coordinating Council and the High Speed Rail Strategy Task Force.
The two have been meeting with other passenger rail service supporters in the area for at least six months, starting well before the presidential election, in anticipation some federal funding could be found for the service, Paddock said.
The volunteer group, which will operate without an executive director or paid staff, will be "working in conjunction with Invent Tomorrow, which has been helping ... and giving us some administrative support," he said.
Invent Tomorrow is a nonprofit group that supports efforts to improve the educational, economic and social well being of area residents. It also connects individuals and organizations that contribute to those efforts.
Lobbying by the Northeastern Indiana Regional Coordinating Council could become important to the area's economic development, particularly if cities compete for passenger rail service funding and the level of public support shown for it influences where the money goes.
Efforts to include Fort Wayne among stops in high-speed rail planning have received strong support in the past from area businesses who frequently "send executives to places like Chicago and Cleveland," Paddock said.
The service currently under discussion by Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association does not include the kind of bullet trains used in Europe and Japan that reach speeds of 200 miles per hour, he said.
In previous plans for two high-speed rail lines running between Chicago, Fort Wayne and Cleveland and Chicago, Indianapolis and Cincinnati, the Indiana Department of Transportation estimated the service would create 4,500 full time permanent jobs in the state.
The Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association considers that a good long-term goal, but Fort Wayne businesses and consumers also would benefit from the return of direct Amtrak service to the city, which probably could happen much sooner, Paddock said.
In addition to its convenience, regular passenger rail service would be more environmentally friendly by reducing highway congestion and fuel consumption, he said.
With the right infrastructure, "regular passenger service can support speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, which is still pretty high speed," Paddock said. And the kind of rails that could be used for this are made in Columbia City by Fort Wayne-based Steel Dynamics Inc.
The economic stimulus bill recently signed by President Barack Obama includes a $9.3-billion investment in rail transportation.
Of that, $8 billion would go to capital assistance for high-speed rail corridors and "intercity rail service, which I take to mean traditional Amtrak service," Paddock said.
An additional $450 million will be available for security and safety improvements and $850 million "is intended for projects that would increase capacity," he said.
"Infrastructure improvements would help cities like Fort Wayne bring back traditional service."
The last Amtrak train rolled out of Fort Wayne in December 1990, and since that time the closest stops on its route for boarding it have been in Kendallville and Waterloo, Paddock said.
Fort Wayne lost direct service, he said, because it did not provide Amtrak with enough passenger volume to justify the higher cost of connecting lines made more expensive by the amount of their capacity freight trains required.
The Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association is meeting monthly to work on attracting funding for infrastructure improvements that would increase connecting line capacity.
"We'll have a Web site and we'll be coming up with a membership brochure," Paddock said.
After it has some additional details worked out, the group plans to present more information on its goals in a news conference the first week of March, then hold an open meeting "in March or early April to get the public involved," he said.
The meeting may take place in the Baker Street Station, which once was the area's largest, grandest and busiest passenger rail depot, Paddock said. An atrium area restored to its original splendor has been used for meetings.