Posted on 06/06/2010 7:58:53 AM PDT by Willie Green
The drive to expand commuter rail across Northwest Indiana seems to have died sometime over the last year, yet there was virtually no recognition of the loss.
There was no wake. No funeral. No obituary.
While some knew the movement was ailing, few apparently knew the seriousness of the situation.
And no one seemed willing to accept responsibility.
Now, five years after the Regional Development Authority was created to, in part, jump-start commuter rail expansion, the proponents are quietly trying to bring the cause back to life.
Rather than continuing to embrace the full build-out of rail lines to Lowell and Valparaiso -- as was the case in the past -- the initial focus will be on the West Lake Corridor -- and doing that in phases.
"If we are to help NWI get into the balance of the 21st century, part of our responsibility is to make it an enticing environment for people to build facilities to replace jobs lost in the steel industry," said Valparaiso's Harley Snyder, chairman of the RDA working group for commuter rail.
"Maybe we phase in and don't do this as one major project at one time," Snyder said. "It would give us greater flexibility in the need to finance a project of this size."
RDA executive director Bill Hanna, U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville, and Gerald Hanas, president of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District that owns the South Shore, met quietly last month to discuss the new approach.
The result of the meeting is that NICTD is charged with coming up with a segmented construction plan, with cost estimates and economic benefits. A transportation consultant already has been engaged.
Hanna, who has been with the RDA for just a year, acknowledged he inherited trouble. Hanna said earlier pushes for a local funding source to match the $500 million that Visclosky can secure have been poorly done.
Among those shortcomings have been a failure to come up with solid figures on jobs and economic growth. Hanna also cited "problematic" legislative efforts, including an ill-advised 2009 referendum.
"We have had economic hardship, but there are federal funds out there. We should leave no stone unturned to benefit the citizens," Hanna said.
State Reps. Chester Dobis, D-Merrillville, and Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, have shepherded the expanded commuter rail effort in the General Assembly in recent years. Without their support, there is little hope.
Neither has been pleased with the cooperation back home. Each said it will take some doing before they again take up the cause.
"There are some people up here who I distrust -- people who helped sabotage this effort," Dobis said. "I have been lied to."
Soliday added, "We have said we are not going to do anything until the NICTD board takes charge. Last time, we had no idea what it was going to cost. Many of us got caught flat-footed. We assumed that NICTD had endorsed it, but they had never voted on it."
The campaign for expanded rail two years ago was full of glitz but short on substance.
The RDA gave the NWI Forum Inc. $130,000 for the public relations campaign to build public support for the Legislature to approve a local funding source. Glossy fliers flooded area mailboxes promising the creation of 26,480 jobs by 2040.
The campaign enraged those opposed to commuter rail because there was no explanation as to what type of jobs would be created, where they would be located and what they would pay.
Since that public relations campaign died, Visclosky said, tax problems and a recession have complicated the situation -- leading to the need for a new approach.
"What are the increments of the phases and the costs," Visclosky thought aloud. "We need to look at it from a local and federal perspective as to what is doable."
Hanna added, "We need an implementation process that makes sense for the people here. What would work in terms of ridership and finance? How do you break that down in terms of a pragmatic approach?"
While Hanas supports the new approach, he added, "The current financial picture in the industry is very dire. The lagging impact of the recession is a perfect storm of financial distress.
"It is going to take several years to get organized and get this off the ground. And, if in fact this has become financially intimidating, what would happen if we cut that in half?"
Hanas said the South Shore experience has him convinced people want more commuter rail.
Yet, Hanas warned, "One of the things that has to happen here is the electorate and whether they actively want this. It is not going to show up like a Christmas present."
While some contend more commuter rail isn't needed and simply will become a long-term financial burden, others don't see it that way.
"We have to move people and goods in more efficient ways," Soliday said. "A lot of the pollution we create is because we are sitting. Let us try and manage (with commuter rail) the traffic that is going to come through here."
Although no commuter rail is self-sustaining, Soliday said the return on investment is huge. For example, the state puts about $15 million into the South Shore each year.
"Some $265 million is brought back from Chicago and the people spend it here," he said.
Visclosky sees commuter rail expansion as the cornerstone of NWI's economic future. And because part of the federal tax on gasoline we put in cars goes to commuter rail, the area would be missing out if it didn't take advantage of what he can secure, Visclosky said.
And the leaders of the two largest planning organizations in NWI are calling the addition of two new commuter rail lines vital for the growth of the region.
Despite such lofty backing, nothing has created more controversy since the inception of the RDA than the push for two new commuter rail lines.
The issue has been the prime factor in Porter County's push to drop out of the RDA.
And while no one is talking about pulling out of the RDA in Lake County, the community as a whole doesn't seem to have embraced more commuter rail. Talk of a commuter rail line from Lowell to Chicago has been in the works for at least three decades.
The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission officially embraced new commuter rail in 1989. At the same time, rail service from Valparaiso to Chicago was ending because of internal fighting between Amtrak and Conrail.
Yet, the same problem plagues commuter rail today as it did two decades ago -- a local funding source.
In 1990, a three-county coalition known as Operation Bootstrap proposed a 1 percent sales tax for Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties as a funding source for rail. It never was embraced by the Legislature.
Visclosky has been sitting on a $500 million appropriation for commuter rail for two years, waiting on a local funding source. It hasn't come.
But he doesn't see local funding as a tax, but rather an investment.
"We are recovering on the taxes we pay today," Visclosky said. "Where else do you put in $1 and make 100 percent on your money? It is our investment."
The General Assembly earlier this year somewhat mysteriously approved a bill to create a Regional Transportation Authority to work under the RDA umbrella. The RTA would have authority to impose a .25 percent income tax across Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties.
But voters in two of those counties would have had to approve a referendum for creation of the transportation authority. Porter and St. Joseph counties voted it down. Lake and LaPorte declined to take part.
Many thought the referendum was ill-advised.
"I wasn't happy about the referendum," said John Swanson, NIRPC's executive director. "(The vote) was a reaction to a bad economy, not so much commuter rail. I believe there will be a funding source."
Mark Maassel, acting president of the Northwest Indiana Forum, said it is not the best of times to raise money.
"But if we don't look to the future, we will find ourselves locked," Maassel said. "Sixty or 70 years ago, I bet there were a lot of concerns about building the Borman.
"Commuter rail is a commitment to the next 100 years of having greater quality of life. Did we get blinded by events of today that we didn't look to the future?"
Swanson, too, said the region needs more commuter rail.
"I am convinced you have to have a viable commuter rail system to get to jobs in Chicago," Swanson said.
Visclosky believes that commuter rail enhances property values, pointing out Chicago has 500 miles of commuter rail lines.
"Commuter rail will bring new business here," Visclosky said. "We don't want our kids to have to leave."
And in terms of future jobs, Visclosky added, "I do fight for steel every day, but there are no new jobs there."
Porter County Commissioner Robert Harper is unbending in his opposition to the RDA and commuter rail in particular.
"How much is this railroad going to cost?" Harper said. "I asked a few questions and did a lot of research. It didn't matter how much money we had, the trains were not coming to Valparaiso because of the travel time (1 hour and 24 minutes to Chicago)."
Harper said his biggest concern is paying for commuter rail through the Regional Transportation Authority.
"The RTA would be tax after tax because the proposed tax (0.25 percent income tax) wouldn't raise enough money."
Soliday said infrastructure is needed if the region is to grow.
"You plan infrastructure 10 to 20 years before you need it," Soliday said. "If we are going to make the transformation Indianapolis made, we need infrastructure and to make sacrifices."
Hanna also feels there is a misconception that train stops would fuel sprawl.
"In terms of sprawl, cities are in charge of their own destiny," Hanna said. "Trains provide easy access to the economy and property values will be higher. We have an opportunity to control sprawl before it happens."
Yet, even some of those who support expanded commuter rail don't think it is going to happen.
Lake County Surveyor George Van Til has served on various levels of local government for almost four decades.
While he is a leading proponent of expanded commuter rail, he doesn't see it happening anytime soon. Van Til said the region should have laid the groundwork 30 to 40 years ago.
"Commuter rail to Lowell and Valparaiso? I'm doubtful. It goes back to what people's habits are. We point to Chicago and say that could be us," Van Til said. "To do societal changes is very difficult. Our habits are so locked into place.
"The South Shore is accepted. It is part of our life. But people in the south don't want to be connected to the north."
Former Porter Township Trustee Robert Wichlinski has long been a student of local government.
"It won't happen in our lifetime," Wichlinski said about commuter rail expansion. "We have a responsibility to make sacrifices for our posterity, yet we are about immediate gratification."
If they have money to blow on glossy fliers, they have money to spend on fantasy choo choos.
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