Well, imagine this traveling by train from Louisville to Indianapolis and then on to Chicago.

Well, it could happen.

Metro Louisville and the Kentucky Regional Planning and Development Agency just received half a million dollars from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

They will use that money to study the pros and cons of passenger rail service to Louisville, from Louisville to Indianapolis.

Mayor Craig Greenburg says he heard from many.

Louisville is excited about that idea.

The move is also getting praise from State Senator Julie Rocky Adams, the Senate Majority caucus chair, who says railway service could be a vital artery for commerce and travel.

The topic of passenger rail systems also came up during our forum building up Kentucky.

During that forum airing tonight here on KCET, panel of policymakers and city and county leaders discussed economic development efforts in the state.

After the live forum was over, members of the audience were invited to ask the panelists questions.

One audience member asked if Amtrak was part of Kentucky's future Transportation plans.

Over the last week or so, Amtrak proposals have been coming out in our area.

And sadly, Kentucky is not part of it.

And I was wondering if you all thought light rail and or connections to Amtrak were beneficial for our communities.

And if so, would you be interested or have you had discussions with our federal delegation to discuss those needs?

I do think that's a conversation.

You know, when we look at Europe and everybody always looks at Europe as Maine, how fast as they can transport with light rail and how nice would it be to go from Louisville to Nashville in a matter of just a snap of the finger?

We have to work like you met your federal delegates on that.

Have seen if that would even be a conversation of crossing state lines and things such as that.

But I do think in terms of of Amtrak in ways that we probably need to be having more of those discussions.

There is that convergence and it goes back to workforce.

You know, I keep thinking about access and awareness when we think about all the innovation that Kentucky's experiencing, all of the new growth in industry and the positions that are going to come available that we don't even understand yet.

We all aspire to things once we're aware of them.

So that's step one.

But then you've got to get there.

You've got to have a means to get to where you're going.

So it's imperative, I think, as we look at, you know, maintaining the workforce.

If people want to decrease their reliance on automobile, we've got to give them alternative means of transportation.

So Amtrak runs right past my house and I'm from Cincinnati, goes right along the Ohio River to West Virginia.

I've done that.

Job.

We would I would love to if we were able to go from Cincinnati to or from Covington to Lexington or Lexington to lower down to Madison County on on trains just and then points farther west and east.

Think how much more productive your time can be.

You'll hear more on the economic development plans Kentucky's cities and counties are working on to strengthen communities during Building up Kentucky.

A Katy forum.

It airs tonight at eight Eastern, seven Central right here on KCET.