Craig Harvey
On the afternoon of August 9, Mayor John Fernandez hosted a presentation on rail issues at City Hall. The presentation focused on two proposals: (1) the construction of a new railroad spur to serve Rogers Group and (2) the purchase of the CSX switchyard and attached rail in the McDoel Gardens and downtown areas for conversion into a multiuse path and park as part of the city’s alternative transportation and greenways plan.
According to the officials present at the meeting, the Rogers Group railroad spur project would be completed by Indiana Railroad and perhaps Rogers Group. This project is simply designed to provide income for both participants. Although officials maintained that there would be no public monies used in this project in any way, concerns were expressed until the very end of the meeting about using public money for this.
The most interesting part of this presentation was the news that the initial impact of this project is to cause three two-way (in and out) train trips a week. They hope and expect this will increase to four two-way trips a day. This traffic could be bad news for property owners near road / rail crossings because of the necessary whistle warnings at these intersections, and it could also be bad news for truck drivers. While this proposal would not affect local truck deliveries, it would dramatically reduce the amount of truck traffic to Rogers customers 60 to 100 miles away.
Part of the bad news is also possibly good news for the other residents of the county. The lower volume of truck traffic will reduce wear and tear on the local roads and thereby reduce the amount of money required to repair these roads. It may also do something to marginally improve the quality of any long distance trips. This could even make it safer to drive, especially over rural roads.
The second presentation concerned the switchyard switch. The city proposes to buy McDoel switchyard from CSX and help them locate a replacement. The old switchyard will then be converted into a park and multiuse path. The cost estimate for this project ranges between $6-7 million.
Issues related to this project include:
The most striking part of the proposal was that there are not any specific plans for final development. Both a greenway and a light rail were proposed and there was a comment that suggested including all of these into a single use path as is done in New Orleans. There has not been any planning done to find out how or if this can be done. The light rail proposal would use the three refurbished rail cars purchased from the South Shore rail near Chicago. For those of you who haven’t seen these cars, they are a collection of older cars that go back to the earliest days of commuter rail service in Chicago. This in my opinion would be a charming addition to our city, but I do have some concerns about maintenance.
Since August, the switchyard project has continued to move forward. A Phase I environmental survey of the site is underway. On November 14, the City Council approved the allocation of $200,000 to hire two Washington DC lobbyists as well as outside legal counsel to assist in trying to obtain federal transportation funds to pay for the project.