Times of Northwest Indiana
Having the nation's top railroad official speak at Gary's airport today isn't as strange as it might sound.
Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo and transportation officials from five states are headed to Gary/Chicago International Airport for a "leadership luncheon" today on the 3,000-mile high-speed rail network proposed for the Midwest. The sold-out event is being hosted by the Indiana High Speed Rail Association.
Szabo is arriving in Gary a day after the federal government announced $8 billion in funding for high speed rail, including $71 million for upgrading Amtrak passenger rail service in Northwest Indiana.
The Indiana Gateway project includes creating new passing tracks, signal system improvements and more to reduce train delay times by 24 percent and to increase average speeds by nearly 7 percent in that segment.
"If you want high-quality service from Detroit to Chicago, you have to fix Porter, Indiana," Szabo said.
Gary's airport, where Szabo will speak, is also a logical tie-in to the high-speed rail initiative.
Rail proponents want to turn the airport into a multimodal people-moving hub.
It should be a stop along the way for high-speed rail and for the slower South Shore passenger rail service, which makes more stops. The airport should be a hub for bus service as well.
That idea has been around for years. The Indiana High Speed Rail Association first proposed it in 1996. It makes sense.
Passengers using the airport for air travel should be able to use it as a station for surface travel as well.
The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority are jointly funding a business and strategic plan for the airport. The idea is to figure where the airport shows the greatest potential and then work to make it happen.
Turning the airport into a multimodal transportation hub is a logical part of that future.
The Indiana Department of Transportation had applied for $2.8 billion in stimulus money to build a Chicago-to-Cleveland route for high-speed rail, with the Gary airport as a proposed stop along the way. That request didn't make the cut.
INDOT should keep trying for federal funding for that project. Szabo's presence at the airport today, along with the Obama administration's strong support for high-speed rail service, might be a good omen for the project's future.