By Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
keith.benman@nwi.com
The federal administrator in charge of dishing out $8 billion in high-speed rail grants from the federal stimulus program is scheduled to speak at Gary/Chicago International Airport on Jan. 29.
Joseph Szabo, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, will be coming to the airport just months after Indiana submitted stimulus-grant applications for high-speed rail projects that could have a big impact on the airport's future.
The administrator's visit is raising hopes Indiana may be a winner in the competition for some of the $8 billion in federal funds dedicated to high-speed rail in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"We have the kind of tie-in they were looking for, a couple of states coming together to make a project happen," said Indiana High Speed Rail Association founder Dennis Hodges.
On Friday, Szabo's office confirmed he would be at the airport to speak on Jan. 29 but gave no further details.
In October, just after the Indiana Department of Transportation submitted a grant application for $2.8 billion for building a Chicago-to-Cleveland high-speed route, Szabo said grant awards would be announced during the winter.
In that application, INDOT marked the Gary/Chicago International Airport as the site of a proposed high-speed rail station. The application stated a station based there would create 400 to 650 jobs.
Airport director Chris Curry on Thursday said a direct high-speed rail link to downtown Chicago has always been an essential part of the airport's development plan.
"There has never been a conversation with a major airline that has not involved discussion of our connectivity to Chicago," Curry said.
In August, INDOT submitted a separate application for $71.4 million to expand the capacity of Norfolk Southern Railway tracks running north of the Gary airport. Those tracks would be a key link in a Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed rail route.
At the same time, Michigan applied for $833 million for the Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed rail route, and Illinois applied for $550 million for routes running from Chicago to St. Louis, Chicago to Milwaukee and the Chicago-to-Detroit route.
In total, the Federal Railroad Administration received 45 applications totalling $50 billion from 24 states.
INDOT officials have also been informed of Administrator Szabo's visit and have marked the date on their calendars, said INDOT spokesman Wil Wingfield.