By John Byrne, Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- Mass transit needs to be a higher priority as state transportation officials look for ways to ease congestion on Indiana's roads, legislators said Wednesday.
If public agencies won't give regional public transportation the attention lawmakers think it deserves, members of the Legislature may look to private companies for big projects.
With regional planners from Northwest Indiana in attendance, members of the House and Senate transportation committees questioned INDOT officials at a joint hearing about their commitment to rail systems and other modes of public transportation.
INDOT Chief of Staff Gil Viets said the agency is committed to working with regional groups to improve mass transit.
But House Transportation Committee member Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, wasn't impressed with INDOT's proposed alternatives to highway construction.
"INDOT didn't really show me much at all today," Soliday said. "They didn't really come in with a plan. They seem to be a reactive agency."
"The culture at INDOT seems set in stone: They build roads," Soliday added.
The joint committee meeting was called to highlight the fact building new highways isn't the only way to move people around the state.
Gerald Hanas, general manager of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, told the panel about how the South Shore commuter railroad is bursting at the seams.
"We had 4.2 million riders last year," Hanas said. "That's the highest number in 50 years."
Hanas acknowledged NICTD might have better luck finding the money to expand the service to Lowell and Valparaiso -- a much-discussed priority for the agency -- if there was better cooperation with INDOT.
"INDOT probably isn't engaged as much with the much larger issues for agencies like ours," Hanas said after the hearing. "There needs to be much larger coordination between local and state organizations to make these kinds of projects work."
But Viets told the panel regional rail is a risky proposition.
"When you build a fixed route, giving people no alternative to go anywhere else, it's a real risk," Viets said. "It's very expensive to put down there in the first place, and then if the passengers don't show up, obviously it doesn't get used."
Soliday said some legislators frustrated with INDOT are exploring alternative ways to fund public transit projects, such as public-private partnership legislation similar to that Gov. Mitch Daniels has proposed as a way to finance construction of the Illiana Expressway.