BY MARTIN ZABELL, Times of Northwest Indiana Correspondent
MICHIGAN CITY | As the South Shore line nears its 100th anniversary, the organization that now runs the railroad is planning its first major extension. On Thursday, the leaders of the organization outlined their plans to extend service to Lowell and Valparaiso.
"These are logical extensions that would create a lot of economic development in this area," Gerald Hanas, the general manager of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, said. "Indiana will pay a congestion tax if we don't expand."
Hanas was the featured speaker of the sixth Innovator's Cafe sponsored by Ivy Tech Community College Northwest. The program, the first in LaPorte County, attracted about 50 people to NICTD's Engineering Mid-Life Facility in Michigan City.
Currently, passengers in northern Indiana take between 14,000 and 20,000 trips per day on the South Shore line. In 2006, there were slightly more than 4.2 million passengers on the railroad, a nearly 11 percent increase over 2005.
At Thursday's session, Hanas said ridership demand is increasing and projected that extending rail service to Lowell and Valparaiso from Munster would result in 7,000 trips per day. He said the demand is being fueled by explosive economic growth in Cook County in general and downtown Chicago in particular.
Hanas contended that Northwest Indiana's economy will perform much better in the future if its residents can travel to Chicago more easily.
"(The extension) will improve access to Chicago jobs and enhance access to everything Chicago has besides jobs and improve the quality of life throughout Northwest Indiana," said John Parsons, NICTD's director of marketing and planning. "That's why it's a sound investment."
The extension project would include 19 miles of tracks from Munster to Lowell, 24 miles of tracks to Valparaiso, train stations and needed property purchases. NICTD estimates the project will cost $1 billion.
The agency has the support of U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., who made a presentation to state legislators on the topic on Monday. The financing plan is contingent on receiving $500 million from the federal government after NICTD leaders raise the other $500 million from state and local sources.
The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority has pledged $150 million to the project. There is no specific plan yet to raise the $350 million balance, but data from similar railroad projects across the nation shows that 74 percent of non-federal monies comes from sales taxes.
Hanas said he hopes that NICTD will receive a federal grant by 2009. It is estimated that the extension project will take four to five years to build.
Although tax hikes are notoriously unpopular, NICTD officials say they believe the population will supportive costly measures that improve railroad service.
"The impetus of rail projects is that they are supported by local populations because of access to job markets," general counsel Michael Harris said.
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