High Speed Rail on Inside Indiana Business

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City Partners with Sen. Wyss, NIPRA to host meeting with INDOT Commissioner

From Stephen Parker’s “Around Fort Wayne” Blog…

Press release from the City:

City Partners with Sen. Wyss, NIPRA to host meeting with INDOT Commissioner
Session will focus on state’s efforts to bring passenger rail service back to Fort Wayne as Midwest looks to high-speed rail network

 

State Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) and the Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association and in cooperation with the City of Fort Wayne will host a forum with Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Michael Reed. Open to the public, the meeting will be at 4 p.m. July 9 at the Baker Street Station, 221 W. Baker St.

Sen. Wyss, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, and NIPRA invited Commissioner Reed to Fort Wayne for an update on Gov. Mitch Daniels’ support of passenger rail service in Indiana and the state’s application for federal funding of high-speed rail. Reed is also scheduled to take questions from the audience.

“The Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association is very grateful to Senator Tom Wyss for his work in securing Commissioner Mike Reed for this most important meeting. We believe there is growing interest in our state legislative delegation to see passenger rail service restored to Fort Wayne in the near future,” said Geoff Paddock, member of NIPRA and one of the organizers of the meeting with the commissioner.

The meeting will focus on INDOT’s rail plan to connect Indiana cities to Chicago with passenger rail service. In 2002, Fort Wayne was selected as an intermediary stop on a proposed high-speed rail line between Chicago and Cleveland, but the Fort Wayne route remains in limbo until the state and U.S. Department of Transportation finalize passenger-rail plans.

“Bringing passenger rail back to Fort Wayne, in whatever form it takes, can be an engine for jobs in northeast Indiana,” said Mayor Tom Henry. “Our state is a critical link between Chicago and Ohio, and Fort Wayne should be the route. We have amazing support in our city for the return of passenger rail since we recognize the value it would add to our community.”

This is the second public forum NIPRA has hosted. In April, the rail-advocacy group held the Rally for Rail with 800 people in attendance.

Get the State on Board!

Passenger rail advocates from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois met on Friday, June 19, at the Baker Street Rail Station in Fort Wayne. Everyone present agreed to coordinate efforts to upgrade rail lines in Indiana which should help bring enhanced passenger rail service to our city. Rick Harnish of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association in Chicago strongly emphasized that residents of the Fort Wayne area should continue to encourage state officials including the Governor to support passenger rail service for Fort Wayne.

Hitting the road for rail.

Representatives of NIPRA, the Downtown Improvement District, and the City of Fort Wayne will be attending an important meeting in Chicago on Monday, June 1st.  The U.S. Department of Transportation is sponsoring a forum to gather input regarding passenger rail service from communities throughout the Midwest. Those representing our area will emphasize the broad support for renewed passenger rail service in Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana.  We are working with freight rail groups that will also throw their support behind the goals of our growing local coalition.

Rally for Rail a success! Now comes the hard part…

Thank you to all those who attended the Rally for Rail on April 3rd. According to counts by the Downtown Improvement District, a crowd of more than 800 came to support NIPRAs efforts to bring rail back to Fort Wayne. In the words of Derrick James from Amtrak, “”If the enthusiasm here is any measure, any guide to whether we’re going to get passenger rail service back in Fort Wayne, I’m saying we’ll get it,”

It’s great to see the realization of what we’ve long suspected — Fort Wayne is ready for the return of passenger rail service. Now the real work has to begin. We all need to contact our state legislators and Governor Daniels to make this a priority. The links to these important people are on the right-hand side of this page. Won’t you take a few minutes to e-mail them to let them know how important this issue is to our community?

Rally for Rail!

Join us for a Rally for Rail to show public support for the return of passenger rail service to Fort Wayne. It will be held at 4:30 p.m., Friday, April 3rd at the Baker Street Station, 221 West Baker Street. There will be speakers from Amtrak and the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, and Mayor Tom Henry will be on hand to welcome everyone.

NIPRA in the news

NIPRA was the topic of a story and the First News Feedback segment of WANE-TV’s 2/19/09 morning broadcast. Click here to see the story.

9.3 billion for passenger rail

The conference report of the stimulus package contains a very exciting surprise.  The appropriation for intercity passenger rail was increased to $9.3 billion! President Obama, Senator Durbin from Illinois and Congressman Oberstar from Minnesota were directly involved in getting the number increased.  We are very thankful for their efforts.

Thanks to everyone who has made phone calls and sent emails. This is an important opportunity for the Upper Midwest Region to re-connect itself.  Now we begin the work of ensuring that our state and local governments take full advantage that opportunity.

Here is a break down of the transportation funds:

‐ $27.5 billion for highway investments
‐ $8.4 billion for public transportation.
‐ $1.5 billion for competitive grants to state and local governments.
‐ $1.3 billion for the air transportation system.
‐ $9.3 billion for rail transportation, including Amtrak, High Speed and Intercity Rail.

This is the breakdown for intercity passenger rail:

- $8 billion for capital assistance for HSR Corridors and Intercity Passenger Rail Service. “The conferees have provided the Secretary flexibility in allocating resources between the programs to advance the goal of deploying intercity high speed rail systems in the U.S.”

- $1.3 billion for Amtrak.  Of this, $450 million is earmarked for security and life safety improvements.  The remaining $850 million is intended for projects that will increase capacity, including rolling stock rehabilitation.  No more than 60% of these funds can be spent in the Northeast Corridor.

Thanks again for your help in creating this success.

Rick Harnish
Executive Director
Midwest High Speed Rail Association
4765 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625

Agreement reached.

An agreement has been reached in the Senate regarding the Stimulus Package. They are expected to vote on it tomorrow (Tuesday). Here is how the House and Senate bills compare on transit and intercity passenger  rail:

(Thanks to nationalcorridors.org for the break down.)

Assuming that the bill passes the Senate, the bill will move into conference committee later this week. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D – Illinois) and Rep. Corrine Brown (D – Florida) are leading the effort to get more infrastructure money in the bill. They are circulating a sign-on letter to the conference committee in that regard.

Please click here to ask your representative to sign on to the letter.

Thanks,

Rick Harnish
Executive Director
Midwest High Speed Rail Association
4765 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60625

Take action now

Senator Kit Bond has introduced amendments that would eliminate two important programs from the stimulus package. One is a $5.5 billion program targeted to large infrastructure projects. This program could be used for transit projects, reducing railroad freight congestion or high-speed rail. The other is a $2.2 billion program for high-speed rail corridors around the country. Please contact your Senators today. Ask them to block Sen. Bond’s amendments. Phone calls are the most helpful, but definitely send an email. Click here to contact your Senators. Illinois residents: Sen. Durbin has worked hard to get these programs into the stimulus package. This email is set up to send him a thank you for his work. You can be most helpful by forwarding this message to your friends in other states. Click here to forward this to your friends.