Last September marked the first time that a train with paying passengers made the journey from Miami to the Orlando area, linking two of the biggest tourist destinations in Florida.

The occasion suggested when a newly invigorated passenger rail system could look like.

Three months later, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded $500,000 to the Midwest Connect Corridor project that would link Chicago and Pittsburgh by way of Fort Wayne, Columbus and other cities in between.

The proposed passenger rail line would also connect 12 million people, 11 counties, three states and 4500 new jobs in Indiana alone.

We'll learn more about what could be a railroad renaissance for our region on this edition of PrimeTime.

And good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

With us today, our guests from the Northern Indiana Passenger Rail Association.

We welcome board member and Fort Wayne City Councilman Geoff Paddock and Fred Lanahan, who is president of the Northern Indiana Passenger Rail Association.

And gentlemen, welcome to you both.

Thank you.

Thanks for It's good to be with you.

Thank you.

Likewise.

Let's go back to the future.

It is 1990, and it's a time when from that point to current, 35 years almost have passed since rail service left the city.

Why did they go and why does it feel like now is the best time for them to return?

What was going on at that time?

Well, in 1990, passenger rail in this area got caught between the state of Indiana and Amtrak.

There was a track issue coming into Fort Wayne, as we understand it.

I was not here at that time.

But at any rate, Amtrak said they didn't have the money to fix it, so they turned to the state of Indiana.

And the state of Indiana said they did not have funds budgeted to take care of it either.

So the service to Fort Wayne in November of 1990 ended and it was routed north to Garrett through Garrett and then a couple of years later, it moved further north to Waterloo on the Norfolk Southern Mainline, which is where it is now.

And that's that is, as we understand it, the reason for the loss of the of the single train that was still coming through Fort Wayne at the time.

And remember, we had to take the bus to get the train.

Yes, sir.

It's something along that line.

And so, Geoff, we may hear this whistle coming around the bend again.

We may.

And you know, one thing I would like to add to what Fred said was those trains were pretty much filled every time they left Fort Wayne and came in to Fort Wayne because people were using that.

And of course, we feel now with the train service that is available, there's an untapped market there that we're not working actually working to, I think, help through this issue.

So we have been working for a long time to try to bring this back.

And Fred and I have worked with the Northern Indiana Passenger Rail Association to put some numbers together, to put some facts together and really try to sell this program as not only a key link for transportation, modes of transportation that is missing here in the Midwest, but something that could produce a lot of jobs and economic activity.

And you mentioned three states.

We also include Illinois, which would be straight as state number four and also a part of West Virginia.

So this becomes a really strong coalition of states working to get this done in the Midwest.

And here we're seeing the calling of the creation of the association of bringing Passenger rail service back to northern Indiana.

And it really seems like the group started to come together not long after the last train cleared Clarksville.

Yeah, that's true.

I remember being there when I was district director for Congresswoman Jill Long, and she would take the train from Fort Wayne to Washington the other direction.

We had a lot of we had a lot of use of that.

But that did go away.

And we've been working hard to bring it back.

And I think we've got a good plan coming forward that at least has now been recognized as something that could be viable by the Federal Railroad Administration.

We'll show that plan in seconds.

But I'm curious about how you organize around the idea of restoring a means of transportation on this order of magnitude across multiple states and organizations, sites of government and so forth.

This is quite the vertical climb.

Well, we've got a good president here and Fred Lanahan and a good board of directors, and we're all volunteers.

But I will say this, Bruce, we have a plan that's pretty solid, that has been looked at, I think very favorably, particularly over the last few years.

And of course it's built a coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature, Democratic and Republican mayors.

Remember, the proposed route here would serve a lot of northern Indiana, perhaps several million people in the northern part of the state.

And it connects a lot of cities.

I mean, the proposal is Chicago, Gary Regional Airport, Valparaiso, Plymouth, Warsaw, Fort Wayne, and then East Lima and several other cities in Ohio.

A lot of connectivity here, a lot of possibilities for jobs and economic activity.

And I think that's why we're getting a lot of support.

And Fred, it's interesting.

It's called the Midwest Connect or Midwest Connect Corridor.

I've seen both.

And the logo certainly brings forth something that I guess many of us might have even assumed always was there.

And yet it for Columbus, they've been without rail since 1979, something like that, right?

Yeah, they the Midwest connect.

I guess the idea is connecting five states, but in our case, the line we're looking at that runs from Fort Wayne to Chicago and east from Fort Wayne into north central Ohio.

Before going to South Columbus, this was the Pennsylvania railroad main line, and that ran through Fort Wayne.

I mean, in the in the 1940s and World War Two, there were 40 some odd trains a day that came through.

Now we're down to two zero with two each way a day and hitting in Waterloo.

So, you know, this is this is a golden opportunity, as we say, to restore passenger rail service to these cities.

And on this track here in in Fort Wayne and in the Indiana, Ohio primarily, but also in West Virginia, southwest Pennsylvania, and part of Illinois.

And Bruce, if I might just add, this is not to take away from the existing line in Waterloo, right?

This is to add service.

We think there is a great untapped market.

We've spent some time and money working on a feasibility study, a couple of them that show a great untapped market.

Amtrak has seen that.

I think the Indiana Department of Transportation has seen that.

And we would like to see this as an additional service.

One of our problems has also been that we have to share passenger lines with freight lines, and freight rail has priority.

And that's why we've got to have a separate dedicated line, at least in parts of the area where trains can go around each other in order to get there on time, make this feasible and make it work.

And what we're looking at is essentially a what an affinity group, if you will, of areas that are going through the same growing pains, the dotted lines suggesting potential service, the solid lines, existing service and high speed in red.

And here again, you can see it going right across the northern third of Indiana, down into central Ohio, then east on over to Pittsburgh.

But what we were mentioning, Florida at the top of the show, this was an area, too, that you would think that Miami to Orlando had always been in place.

And it was just within the last half a dozen months or so.

Yeah.

So within all of this, to bring it together, being able to accommodate both.

Why do we want to make that accommodation, which is the perfect discussion point?

Why are trains important?

Well, when when you look at the situation, you build a new lane under an interstate highway, like they're proposing on I-70 now and I 65.

Soon as you build it, it fills up with traffic.

It doesn't reduce the traffic congestion, it just adds another lane to it.

You have to rebuild them every few years.

The train lines would supplement as far as another mode of transportation that used to be available to the people of Indiana, Ohio and the other states involved, Illinois.

It would bring back another option.

It would also allow people to get off the road and get onto the train, like to take our grandkids to Chicago, to the museums or something like that.

And that that option, which used to be very prevalent throughout the Midwest and the country, hasn't been around for a long time.

And we're proposing bringing it back, not taking away anybody's cars.

If they don't want to drive the train, ride the train, they don't have to.

But it's going to be an option that really needs to happen.

And it's a cheap way to travel and it's an efficient way to travel that's far less polluting than the private automobile is.

Than the airplanes are.

And so we hope to bring this back and again, have them have the option.

Another major line of travel, that ability to travel a lot that we don't have today.

And Bruce, if I might add, I think Fred made a good point here, that mode of transportation that's missing, we have got a good highway system in Indiana.

In fact, this plan is kind of mirrored off of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, that President Dwight Eisenhower, in his wisdom, gave us.

And the funding 80% federal and 20% local and state is part of this as well.

But we have a good highway system.

We're improving our airports.

The Fort Wayne International Airport has come a long way and it's making a number of improvements there so that we can have more direct flights.

This is a mode of transportation we have not directed our attention to, as we should have.

And, you know, when Amtrak and our train left in 1990, almost 35 years ago, the population of the United States has grown by tens of millions.

The demand is there and it's across the board.

We have business travelers, we have disabled travelers.

We have young people who don't drive as much as we did when we wanted to get our driver's license years ago.

It's the vacation traveler.

It's just such a broad range of people that this is missing.

This is a link that's missing.

There's still going to be plenty of cars on the highways.

And I think there will be plenty of opportunities to take a plane.

In fact, some trains will take a person to an airport to get on an airplane so we can work together on all of this.

But it's appeal.

It's a demand.

It's a market demand.

As I mentioned.

And it's something that I'm glad you showed that map, because that dotted line shows just how critical this missing piece is across this section of the Midwest.

It's something that clearly caught the attention of the Federal Railroad Administration of we can go back to the close of 2023 when the announcement came of the award of half a million dollars.

Walk us through what that will be called to do.

What will happen to with those funds?

Well, we are we're still working through some of this.

And there is some complication to it.

But we are working.

And I want to I want to salute Mayor Tom Henry and our city government and Paul Spoelhof and the Community Development Division who's working with us to put together what we would call a service development plan.

That's the Federal Railroad Administration's term.

And I think what that means is, Bruce, it's kind of going to lay out what has to be done to do what you showed on that map to show how do we connect these cities in these five states from Chicago to Pittsburgh and of course, including many in Indiana, particularly in Fort Wayne?

What has to be done, how much track that was taken up has to be replaced.

Do we need overpasses over some of the busy highway so we can reach that maximum speed?

How about some passing track?

Signalization?

Do train stations in some cities need work?

Will be.

We will be.

We be requiring new train sets.

So to speak.

All of that will be determined over the next few months as we put this plan together.

And then if we're successful, we have a big possibility here.

We really do.

And the notion of the train station development, if I'm being able to express that correctly, station development benefits have an economic dynamic to them.

Apparently, transit oriented development is is kind of the correct term for that around these stations.

It raises the value of the property.

Let's take Baker Street Station, for example, and downtown Fort Wayne.

You've got parking lots and all directions from the station across the street on either side.

But suddenly that land becomes much more valuable, perhaps for a hotel, a parking hotel and parking garage, other businesses to cater to the travelers.

And so this is transit oriented development.

They've seen that happen in other cities around the country, whether it's intercity rail like we're proposing or commuter rail.

It's very much a factor in the in the redevelopment, especially of the core of our cities.

A transit-oriented development, Fred, hit the nail hit the nail on the head with that one.

And that's part of the district that I represent, Bruce as a council member.

And I can see this benefiting a lot of the neighborhoods that surround that train station because folks are going to want to live.

They're going to want to live near where they can board a train, perhaps walk to a train.

We have opportunities there for businesses to come up.

You know, you mentioned the 4500 jobs across the state, Mayor Henry, across the state.

I think you said Mayor Henry estimated 500 jobs.

You know, in Fort Wayne alone.

Keep in mind that the train station is right across the street from Parkview Field within just blocks of the Grand Wayne Convention Center and a lot of amenities in Fort Wayne.

And again, right across the street is our wonderful Citilink station.

You can board a bus and go somewhere, perhaps board a bus and go to Fort Wayne International Airport and catch a train.

A lot of connectivity here that we're just, you know, breaking the surface with in the working of a development plan and pulling the proposal together, getting federal support at this level with the opportunity to pursue that partnership further.

What have been some of the data points you've picked up along the way, looking at other communities, other lines that have been established?

And you say to yourself, this is what the Fort Wayne line, if you will, the connectivity that can come to Fort Wayne and to our region.

If we could only copy paste most of this and bring it home and Fred knows this better than I do, and I'll let him answer as well.

But I think what the examples that we see where we have separate dedicated lines, as I mentioned, or passing track, as long as we have a situation where when you board a train in Waterloo, you're going to be stuck behind a freight train maybe for an hour or two on your way to Chicago, that's not going to work.

The same with other cities, but they've corrected that.

And where you see that happen and you have train service.

I mean, imagine being able to get on a train and go to Chicago and get there in less time than it takes to drive.

And you don't have the parking issue or the parking fee or the driving through the city and the busy freeways.

This is going to have a lot of appeal.

And where we have seen this very successful are states, particularly on the East Coast and the West Coast.

You mentioned Florida, Bruce, that are able to traverse the state without the freight train back up, that that's what will make the successful.

And further, I my sense is, too, that the benefits Fort Wayne can enjoy as a result of this additional connectivity and transport option option.

This is a very democratic, equitable thing because Warsaw can offer it, because Gary can offer me there where all the other stops along the way.

At least it seems to me that there's an opportunity here for each community along the way.

And does that help, in fact, encourage the kind of consensus that you need to make a project like this move forward?

I think so.

Very much so, Bruce.

You know, when you look at at the connectivity between, say, Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, which is a trip my wife and I took last fall down to see the Lincoln sites in and Springfield, there are at least three trains running south and three north, so that six trains a day through Springfield when we get on the train, there were at least 50 people in Springfield getting on.

And when we got off, there were at least 50.

And it's the sense that the station is right on the edge of the downtown district.

If you look at Chicago, Milwaukee, they're adding trains between Chicago and Milwaukee because they're being used so heavily.

And if you look at the Midwest, they say that the that for the airlines, 300 miles or less is almost a write off because it hardly pays for itself on a short hop on an airplane.

That's the sweet spot for passenger rail.

And that's why we talked originally Chicago to Fort Wayne to Columbus.

But now this goes on as far as far as Pittsburgh.

But, you know, if you if you think in terms of financing, the public says, well, you know, how much is this going to cost?

Well, do you realize you pay for the airports?

All of us pay for the airports with our tax dollars.

Do we realize that we pay for the highways?

Do we realize that we pay to rebuild the highways every four or five years?

So this would be some money up front.

But we estimate that within 10 to 15 years or less, depending upon the ridership, that all operations costs will be taken care of by ridership and that was that was from Fort Wayne to Chicago and Chicago to Lima and on to Columbus.

But we can extend that to Pittsburgh.

The state of Pennsylvania is already adding a second trip, a second train from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, daily round trip.

Once this happens, they may want to add a third because it'll connect Pittsburgh further west.

And Bruce, Fred makes a good point because the infrastructure that we can put in, particularly these rails, can last for 50 years.

Yes, you know, maybe longer.

And highways have to be repaved.

Now, highways are important, but folks will be surprised to know that the Interstate 69 extension from Indianapolis to Evansville, which I think is a very necessary step, and I'm glad we're finally getting that done.

It's been talked about for 25 years.

That costs about $26 million per mile, $26 million per mile to build a new interstate highway.

So think of that in perspective to what rail is and whatever cost is going to come out, how long that can last and how much it can serve and how many people it can serve this part of our country.

I'm sure some are perhaps watching, wondering, So how soon can I buy a ticket?

What are those next steps now that we are moving through, you know, the first third of this year?

What where are we now?

Yeah.

And I think, you know, Fred and I worked our hearts out on this, and so is our NIPRA board.

They're all great people and volunteers, and I think we have turned a corner, Bruce, in the last few months, as you mentioned, when we were chosen by the Federal Railroad Administration for this service development plan.

And while there are still several steps to go and we think most of that funding is there, if this comes forward, if this bears fruit and we can be awarded and there are a lot of other projects out there, but we think there's about $36 billion in this federal bipartisan infrastructure bill.

If we can get a portion of that and pay for 80% of this, we're starting to get some nods of approval from state legislators, from city officials, mayors and so on.

The private sector, we know we think this could be a combination that 20% match mostly state, but some local and maybe private dollars foundation dollars.

Right.

We could actually make this happen.

We could get this done, you know, within the next five years or so.

We hope if everything moves well.

But by getting this checkmark, I'll say from the Federal Railroad Administration, it really puts us into the game.

Yeah.

So for both of you all, we have the moment.

Is it your sense that when you see other data points on the U.S. map, on the regional map, that indeed passenger rail is making a comeback, that, if you will, everything not old is new again, but that there's a rediscovery of the opportunities of passenger rail?

Yes, I think so.

You've seen it on the West Coast.

California has and Oregon, Washington State have passenger rail and reinstituted it.

They're electrifying rail.

They're setting up a high speed line between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver on the West Coast.

We're seeing California doing its high speed rail in addition to the other rail.

So I think, yes, you're seeing a renaissance of passenger rail.

I come originally from the state of Vermont, and the state of Vermont decided to improve passenger rail service and are reinstituted in the state by reaching out for federal grants.

They've been able to do that.

They're connecting their cities, along with New York and Montreal.

This you know, this can happen here.

Indiana used to be one of the major railroad states in the country.

And we have a wonderfully designed line that's now owned by CSX, but used to be the Pennsylvania Railroad main line from the East Coast to Chicago runs right through Fort Wayne.

It's right there.

There's limited traffic on it.

Limited freight traffic on it.

Very limited.

It's ideal for this for this effort.

And I think also, again, I'd like to point out and I shout out to the president of the United States and to Democrats and Republicans in Congress, that's why it's called the bipartisan infrastructure bill was led by President Biden.

But Democrats and Republicans voted for this on a bipartisan basis to make this funding available.

As the president, Eisenhower had the foresight for the interstate highway plan.

President Biden and some of our friends in Congress have done this.

So this makes it now more within our reach to make these upgrades that have to be made, like Fred said.

A lot of that track that goes to Chicago, at least up through Valparaiso, is existing.

But the passing track signals bridges, whatever to make sure freight can go around passenger rail and vice versa.

To make this viable has to be added.

And that's why there's a cost to begin with.

And our service development plan will lay that out and tell us what it is, and then we'll be going back hopefully to get that 20%.

Yeah, but speaking for a train rider.

Yeah.

I live on the south side of Fort Wayne to come down to Baker Street Station to take a passenger train to Chicago or the East Coast.

Once it comes back, will will be a mile and a half trip for me.

Currently, I've got to drive 30 miles north to Waterloo for the nearest passenger rail station.

This is going to be a big advantage to the citizens of Fort Wayne Allen County.

It's going to be indeed a golden spike kind of moment.

It will be here.

And the very aspirational and we can follow that along with you both and with all involved with the Passenger Rail Association.

You can follow it online.

There's the website right there niprarail.org and the association members with us today, Geoff Paddock, board member and Fort Wayne City Councilman and Fred Lanahan, board president.

Gentlemen, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

And thank you as well for allowing us to be with you and for everyone with PrimeTime.

I'm Bruce Haines.

Take care.

We'll see you again next week.

Good night.