How a 120 year old stretch of real estate could shape Indy’s Transportation future
"Better know your history!" Zoli Téglás - Ignite
- Intersection of Capital & 16th Street looking south: Could we fit a LR line here?
I was able to get my hands on a study that was done in 2004. It is named, "Downtown Indianapolis Railroad Relocation Feasibility Study". It is a 90 page, 2mb document (click here to open) that is 0ut of date but still considered good reading in my opinion. The study explored the rail belt that detours around the downtown metro area. I have attached a map to make it simple. The study reads more like a history book which is what I think makes it an interesting read. The belt has been on the ground for quite some time. It was built in the late 1800's and shows its age. You can spend some time going through the 90 page document to familiarize yourself if you wish. What was explored in the study was relocating the current through freight traffic to the belt starting and ending at the points shown on the map. By doing so, the consultants indicated a long list of benefits that include primarily the following: Protecting downtown Indy from hazardous materials, opening Union Station for full passenger utilization, possible removal of the viaduct dividing downtown and opening up the new land then available for further development, increasing travel time for through trains and overall increasing the capacity that the Indianapolis area can handle in terms of freight traffic. They estimated the cost at the time, at nearly $100 million to construct two full tracks with crossings and an advanced electronic signal & switching system. The old belt currently still sees duty although very limited due to it's condition which limits top speeds. The benefits to Indy would hinge on negotiating with CSX to relinquish ROW along the current through lines to the City of Indianapolis.
- Indianapolis Belt Railroad as of 2010 (click to enlarge)
Why is a study that was issued in 2004 and is outdated due to the closure of some important industrial sites seem worth mentioning at this point? Because recently, the topic of rehabing it appeard in the CIRTA meeting minutes. I have not been able to track anything down in regards to current work being done surrounding the beltway, but it is a curious observation with so much commuter rail talk swirling around. The text of the NE Corridor AA/EIS information even spells out the possibility of on-street light rail from the 10th street through downtown. One can draw their own conclusions but raising $100-$150 million to relocate a freight line doesn't happen often.
- Amsterdam On-Street Tram (image credit: http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/)
It makes me wonder, are city planners talking about bypassing Union Station altogether in their implimentation of light rail? Union Station itself is in bad shape but is still utilized by Amtrak. Coupled with the Indygo Downtown Transit Center studies (the first of which in 2006 called for usage of the post office located south of Union Station), are planners attempting to skirt the usage of Union Station, and by extension, negotiations with CSX (which I would imagine come out costly no matter what the consusion) to reach a final plan? This would be a bold move when it seems nearly ALL rail plans that have been ventured over the years, involve some sort of usage of the station which resembles nothing short of a demilitarized zone... If I may be so bold, and I was, I created what a potential light rail system routing that doesnt utilize Union Station, could look like. I made use of Capitol & Illinois which are one way north/south avenues and have been mentioned as desirable paths of utilization. Inbound and outbound lines are differentiated by color, and the east/west Washington Street LR alignment is shown. CSX lines are in light gray. The NE line would still use the Nickel Plate but would depart onto 16th street and across to Capital/Illinois on its way in and out of downtown. The South line, I thought would use these same streets to get to Meridian outside of I-70 and then reconnect with the Louisville & Indiana RR ROW headed south for Greenwood. I may be a little off the wall with this idea, but apparently it's not too far off the mark. The Transport Politic reported today that Seattle is trying to apply these same ideas, albeit on a much longer scale, to a light rail line in their city. If it is true what they say about cost savings, then this is more ammo to suggest similar on street service here. In a perfect world, high speed rail could some day pass through Indianapolis funded in large part by federal dollars. If Indy could display its willingness to promote local rail transit by building a good network of street LR then the coming of HSR and associated infrastructure improvements could be funded by federal tax dollars. In short, a win-win situation. Like I said, perfect world....
A possible LR alignment not utilizing Union Station (click to enlarge)
I have not really spent much time disecting the Indyconnect bus related improvements. In studying the plans, expanded bus service is being proposed outside of the existing routes inside AND outside of Marion country. Outside of Marion County would represent a robust growth in service for Indygo, the local bus transportation provider.
A good hub would take into account existing bus lines, plus proposed expanded operations, into account. With the Indyconnect plan now being peddled, I can imagine any notions brought up in 2008 when the current study was started, could be reconsidered based upon the introduction of specific rail routes outlined.
I contacted Indygo in regards to the status of the HNTB study, and spoke with their director of procurement about the topic. He reported to me that the study is full speed ahead but was unable to share specifics at the moment. He passed me along to their Marketing Dept contact who told me, "We're still actively trying to identify the best location and plans for this project. The study continues. Several sites have been identified but we're working with FTA to explore the options."
March 26th, 2010 - 09:57
Props. Good post.
March 26th, 2010 - 10:20
Curt, that part of 16th where you have rail lines handles about 20,000 cars a day right now, and the intersection of 16th and Meridian is one of the busiest in the Regional Center, with a combined total of about 50,000 cars per day. (That’s why the four corners there boast Chase, Walgreen, CVS, and Mickey D’s., all with drive-throughs.)
And Clarian is about to start building its neuroscience center at 16th & Senate, which will bring more people to the area. I suppose one might argue that employment density should be a major factor in laying rails, but I don’t think we can afford to completely ignore existing auto patterns in doing so. 16th isn’t wide like Washington, Capitol, and Illinois, and couldn’t handle in-street rail as well.
I’d much rather see a real 16th St. crosstown bus than light rail there, using both Meridian and the rail line as feeder spines.
March 26th, 2010 - 11:01
Good points cdc. I thought about those when I put that down there. When I thought about where else to route it though, taking the nickel plate across 10th street makes no sense. Its difficult, CSX is in the way in more ways than one, and besides that, it wastes the economic benefits of routing through downtown. While I agree there are heavy traffic patterns in those areas, it was tough to decide where else they could go. One could almost put their finger on a map and decide where to put it. The good thing to note though, is that cross town traffic patterns could be mildy adjusted to let rail flow through the lights easier. Capital is that way now…
March 28th, 2010 - 14:38
I suppose a compromise could be made. It always seems difficult to fight the traffic going east on 16th street. What if the west (inbound) lane utilized one lane of 16th street, and the outbound could travel along Illinois until 22nd, and take that across east to the Monon area and rejoin the tracks. Its the only other cross street that makes sense and thats almost taking it too far north in my opinion. It just seems a waste to not route any line through the streets when it takes so much to accomodate CSX’s owned lines. The obvious economic development potential to going through underdeveloped neighborhoods is there as well. Just brainstorming though. I welcome more conversation on the topic.
March 29th, 2010 - 12:20
Run the east-west segment on 38th over to Illinois and Capitol, then south. All those streets have plenty of lanes. (I think one of the million prior studies looked at that alignment.) Then you don’t even get into the 16th argument.
March 29th, 2010 - 12:22
That kind of alignment would help to re-establish corner nodes along those two streets, mainly at the high-potential but currently disastrous 34th St., but also at 29th/30th and 22nd. The advantage is that those corridors are currently inhabited and not burdened with the brownfield issues along the Monon. Plus it would be very close to the central corridor businesses and institutions, including The Children’s Museum, Ivy Tech, Methodist Hospital, and the host of smaller not-for-profits along Meridian.
March 29th, 2010 - 13:06
I see where you are headed with that thought, and that makes great sense. However, I feel like going across 38th street and skipping all those brownfield zones would be a smack in the face to those neighborhoods south of 38th street along the monon area. Have you driven through there any time lately? Its terrible…. something like this could potentially be a savior in places like that. Not saying it would be…
March 30th, 2010 - 10:22
I’ve even ridden the Monon for a slow-mo view of the current wasteland.
I’m not actually thinking either/or. Ultimately the city should have commuter rail on the NKP line AND streetcar or in-street light rail from downtown to 38th St. on either Meridian or Illinois/Capitol (similar to the Washington St. plan).
March 30th, 2010 - 11:43
I agree with you 100% on that. You should contact the Downtown Streetcar Corp people (Steve Devoe, you may know him) and see about motivating their effort along. That would assist in this effort as well.
April 9th, 2010 - 15:09
Thanks for this blog describing a lot of the base conditions for transit in Indy. I am not sure of the local demographics per streetcar line that you are describing, so I cannot comment on worthiness of each route. It seems that the urban density flows north and east of the core, so does it make any sense to route the streetcar on Massachusetts Ave?
While you seem to like running the trolley side-of the road fashion on one-way streets, it will cost more to build it that way. It also does not create the sense of a trolley neighborhood like you see in your Amsterdam photo. I think it is fine to downgrade auto traffic on a streetcar line, especially if you figure in traffic improvements on other streets (light sequencing etc).
Keep up the good reporting and thinking!