BY AMY LAVALLEY, POST-TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT
Dennis Hodges doesn't expect an announcement on a high-speed rail line for the Midwest -- and through Northwest Indiana -- until the spring.
Still, the founding member of the Indiana High Speed Rail Association, and its current vice president for business development, said "the timing was ideal" for a Jan. 29 luncheon featuring Joseph A. Szabo, administrator of the Federal Rail Administration, who will speak on the high-speed rail system proposed for the Midwest and its potential economic benefit.
Indiana and Ohio worked together to apply for $2.8 billion in federal dollars for a high-speed rail line that would go from Chicago to Cleveland, with stops at the Gary/Chicago International Airport and Fort Wayne, and possibly Valparaiso, Hodges said.
In all, 40 states applied for $8 billion in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he added. The Indiana/Ohio application was submitted in September.
Hodges and Virginia Shingleton, an associate professor of economics at Valparaiso University who has done extensive study of high-speed rail, said the mode of transportation could have considerable economic benefits for the communities involved.
"The Gary airport could be a multi-modal transportation hub," Hodges said, adding it could play host to high-speed rail, commuter trains, buses and airplanes, making it the second-largest transportation hub in the Midwest, after Chicago.
High-speed rail, he said, could generate $6 for every dollar spent.
"It's a huge return on the investment, and in this economy, we're looking for jobs, jobs, jobs," Hodges said.
Shingleton, who is not familiar with the proposed Midwest route, said high-speed rail could have a number of advantages, including less congested roads. For distances of 100 to 400 miles, high-speed rail times can match air travel, without the hassles of airports and with the added benefit of business travelers being able to use cell phones and wireless Internet while they're en route to their destination.
"It could get people into and out of city centers very quickly," she said.
All of that, however, depends on a number of factors. Shingleton's study of high-speed rail between Washington, D.C., and New York City, as well as systems in France and Japan, revealed that the mode of transportation is most beneficial to the hub cities, rather than those on the spur, or feeder, lines.
Putting stops too close together defeats the purpose of high-speed rail, too, because trains can't reach maximum speed before they have to stop again. Other variables include whether a system will use existing but retrofitted tracks, or new tracks altogether.
The system would work best, Shingleton said, across several states, and could be used to move freight as well as people.
"It could be very efficient in a multistate region," she said.