Yesterday, I attended a joint presentation by the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority and the Indianapolis Metropolitian Planning Organization at our brand spankin’ new Central Library. The presentation had two goals: First, to outline the results of their multi-year study of central Indiana’s projected growth through 2035 and their plan to meet the transit needs to the area as this growth occurs, and, second, to present their recommendation for the first stages of implementation. The presentation was actually quite short, about 45 minutes total, followed by about an hour and a half of public comment. All in all, it was a worthwhile and enlightening; it was time well spent.
Depressingly, they see our current trend toward sparsely populated, and unsustainable sprawl continuing…at least for a while. On the other hand, they recognize that they have an opportunity to help shape the growth by providing other transportation options. I was actually surprised that this was one of the first reasons they listed for picking their recommendation for the first stage of implementation. Their recommendation is to revive the Nickel Plate rail line which runs from downtown to Noblesville and beyond.
There are other obvious reasons for choosing this route. The right of way is owned by the Hoosier Heritage Port Authority which wants to develop it. There is a demonstrated desire for the service, as IndyGo cannot keep up with the demand for their trial express bus service from Fishers. Since parts of the route are minimally maintained for the Fair Train, the upfront costs would likely be the cheapest of the seven total lines they would like to develop by 2035.
The other two reasons they cited surprised me. One I’ve already aluded to. Many places along the route, near downtown, near 75th and Binford, in Castleton, some in Fishers, and quite a bit in Noblesville are disusued or abandoned industrial and comercial space which used to take advantage of the freight line. Without this line, these lost their utility. They see this as an opportunity to shape and foster the redevelopment to these areas in a transit friendly manner. The other surprising reason goes back to this being the lowest cost option. You see, you can get all the federal dollars you need to build roads based off a simple formula, but you cannot get federal tranportation dollors for transit unless you first demonstrate you are serious about transit by building it yourself. Nice.
It was good to hear the pulbic comment as well. Some of the citizens were incredibly well informed, and others, well, not so much. Some of the comments were predictable: “Why should I have subsidize something I’ll never use?” or “Why look at trains when we can’t even get buses right?” Heck, one housewife even got up and said that this line goes through residential neighborhoods and past a school…think of the children. I thought the presenters did a good job of responding to serious queries, and just letting others vent.
