Huston Street Racing Indianapolis based Urban Photojournalism & Transportation Advocacy

Making the Case for Indy Commuter Rail: Part 4 “The finer details”

As I wrap up this series, I wanted a place to collect all the smaller details, and fringe items that didn't fit nicely into the other 3 parts of the series.

Circulators

The only real physical part of this, is figuring out the circulators that would be added to assist in getting people to the stations. Before I even BEGIN to guess what a regional circulator might look like in the Indianapolis area, I once again referred to Wilsonville, Oregon and their commuter rail endpoint. What I found, were three seperate municipalities that have robust bus transit around their towns that offer service to the Wilsonville rail station. I will provide just one of their map since it is Wilsonville's and show what Indy area resident can DREAM of. If we could just get a few routes to start that ran through some of the suburban neighborhoods with a shelter located at the head of the ones it ran through, I think that would be a good start. For the time being though, salivate over the attached map. "Smart Central" is the hub. You can see all routes radiate from there.

"What About Me?"

The next thing I want to touch on is the "What about me?" attitude that I have ran across quite a bit. 

Since I have dug into this, I have been excited about it. When I tell people what I am working on, I have heard more than once something resembling this statement, "That's nic and all, but why do I need to pay for someone in the north east suburbs to get to work? They chose to move there." To that I want to reply in earnest, "Why do you choose to stay living in the metro area then?" I agree, if all this was ever going to be was a single track to Noblesville so that the residents of that area had a way to get to downtown in the morning and the evening, I wouldnt even be putting in the effort and writing this study. So take heart you "What About Me's?" of the Indy Metro Area. The planners in their efforts, have outlined a future for developing a mass transit plan for the metro area. If you see the attached graphic, it shows a recommended system plan and a rough timeline for what order to impliment. Funding will be the biggest hurdle to getting a large system inplimented.

Funding

Funding... now there lies the largest hurdle in getting this off the ground. The initial estimate in 2008 dollars, was $160 million. What this preicetag includes, I do not know. Replacement of most of the track is something that I heard was going to be needed, and would take up nearly $50 million of the $160 initial estimate. That would include new gravel (ballast), rail, rail ties, etc. etc. Where bridges and such come in to that I do not know, but a good example for scale is the Olio Bridge overpass I wrote about previously in my blog. It is a 4 lane auto bridge over I-69 and comes in around $8 million in construction costs. I assume that this is somewhat close. Recently, the US DOT changed it's rules regarding funding for "smaller" (read: streetcar, light rail, commuter rail) scale projects. The Bush admininistration had tightened the rules regarding release of funding for such projects. So in that sense, the Obama administration has only made it easier for cities to get the funding, not made more funds available. So how that helps Indianapolis in it's efforts to secure funding is still unclear. That said, the wrap up of the DEIS is needed before any efforts can be put towards securing federal funds. A firm engineering plan and cost outlook needs defined. Also, in recent news, Mayor Greg Ballard was publically quoted as saying that he was finally ready to come to the table and talk about a regional funding option for transit. This is a landmark in that he had said that he thought the system could be completed through private investment. That said, he is still awaiting the completion of a private sector task force's results from a year long study made on transit in the Indy region. It should be interesting to see what this private study has to say. One thing thing that they have said is that they intend for their vision to be able to be completed within a decade. That is QUITE an ambitious plan depending on how wide reaching their study concludes.

The Future

The future of this leg alone, envisions a 19 station, 2 track route from 146th street to Union Station downtown. There was talk of making it an electric type of engine which from a sound point of view, would be nice. How that translates to an air pollution savings, I do not know. Indiana has a long history of coal generated electricity. I have attached a picture of a cross section from a Denver DEIS study. It outlines what a typical cross section of doubl track would look like dimensionally. You can see, that a substantial amount of space along the right of way will be required. Some of this is already collected, but I am pretty sure that some land will need purchased. The cost of the double track design is estimated at $691 million in 2008 dollars.

The Indianapolis MPO has a long range transit vision for 2035 that is updated every year. It is public record on their website and the NE Corridor line will likely be adopted into their long range plan. Anna Tyszkiewicz at the MPO has informed me that the MPO will be redoing their outlook for the long term plan this year which will be interesting to see how rail transit mixes into that.

The Pitfalls of Rail in Indy

Noted urban strategist Aaron Renn of the Urbanophile pens regular items on urban improvement. A well known transit advocate, he has penned a couple of articles concerning rail transit in Indianapolis. In his write up "Why Rail Transit is a bad idea for Indianapolis", he notes a number of reasons why Indianapolis is not Chicago, Portland or other places where downtown densities are greater, political might is behind it, ridership is generally expected to be high, but slow. However, he does later write that a pilot line, such as what I am wrapping up describing here, might work. I greatly respect his opinions and hope that any planners involved with the rail projects in Indy, lend at least a little time to his opinion.

Downtown Indianapolis Street Car

I want to close this series with a thought about streetcar service in downtown Indianapolis. In 2008, Downtown Indianapolis Streetcar Corp was formed. Initially, when I looked at the website, I kind of laughed. That is until I got to the board of directors page. It appears that a list of prominent local business people are involved. This helped improve my opinion on the effort. I did some quick searching around the web and was able to track down some email addresses. I emailed to the president of the board, Stephen Devoe, with a general inquiry about the effort. He replied to me and said that they have in fact been working on this effort. I got the impression that it wouldnt be long before there was something to present publically on the effort. When I dug more into the street car effort, I uncovered some information about the low cost of implimentation when compared to commuter rail and even street level light rail. In my head, I feel like a small downtown circulator could be constructed for $5-$20 million which if private investment was involved, could be done in a heartbeat. Also, the relative low level of obstruction (12" below street level) results in a quick turn around when it comes to constructing this. I feel like they could have something up and running in short order, for a minumum of cost in the downtown area. When they have reached a point that they wish to divulge publically, you can bet that I will be reporting on it.

Conclusion:

So that bring me to the end of this series. I want to say that should the powers that be decide to go forward with establishing a commuter line in the Indianapolis area, they will have at least 2 riders here, my wife and I. I have spoken with a number of other people in the last 4 months in doing my research, who would also utilize it. What started for me as an idea, has turned into a LARGE research project in which I still havent covered everything that needs covered. From an engineering point of view, I didnt even include the information about rail sizes, FTA standards, ballast regulations and a whole slew of other things. So the people in charge, have lots to think about.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Casey Jo Ailes. She has put up with my crazy obsession over this for months now. Being pulled out into poor weather. Walking. Photographing. Listening to me talk about it. Thanks a bunch! Next, Anna Tyszkiewicz. She was the first person at the MPO who got me headed in the right direction and has been prompt and courteous in returning my emails. The Indianapolis MPO has been a great site for information in my searches as well. Charles Spitulnik of Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell who took time out of his day to answer random questions from a very ignorant caller in regards to partnerships between municipalities and private railroad companies.  I didnt know it at the time, but he has published a number of write ups on the topic which are considered good reading. Lastly, CIRTA who's website is easy to navigate, and provides a lot of general information on the proposed efforts going on around central Indiana not only concerning rail, but all forms of public transportation.

In closing, thanks to everyone who has contributed or read these articles. It may be all for nothing, but it sure opened my eyes to how things get done. I can say with confidence that I plan on taking a larger role in supporting the area efforts regarding mass transit. In fact, I will begin attending CIRTA board meeting starting this January to help assist however I can.

Part 1: Union Station

Part 2: Route Exam

Part 3a.) 146th/141st St

Part 3b.) 116th St

Part 3c.) 71st St

Part 3d.) Midtown

Part 3e.) 25th St