Post Illiana: We still need to talk about (mass)
transportation
29 March 2007 06:34 AM | Indiana, NW Indiana and Porter
County
Even though the Illiana privatized toll road has been
downsized we still need to talk about transportation
policy and mass transit in NW Indiana and in Indiana
in general. Here's my thoughts on the matter:
1. Extend the South Shore rail road to both Lowell and Valparaiso. Frankly this is years overdue and needs to be addressed.
2. Bus service - both fixed route and flex route needs to be expanded. I am not a big fan of busses, but they have their place. Outlying towns (like Hebron) that are not on one of the rail lines need fixed schedule bus service to take them to a rail line, market town or other transportation hub. It is important that all bus-stops be clearly marked and routes and timetables published. Right now the bus stops are not well marked, if they are marked at all, and this discourages adoption of mass bus transit use by the public. Every bus stop is an advertisement for the bus service, but people will not use what they do not know about. This is also the problem for flex route (or bus on demand) service, it is a good idea but publicizing it is going to be difficult. I see bus service as a stop-gap measure with the goal being light rail along heavily used corridors. 100 years ago we had light rail connecting the whole region but that got killed off by the automobile.
3. Rim connections - The South Shore lines proposed are all spokes leading into Chicago, but there needs to be scheduled mass transit service around the rim of the area: (e. g.: Chesterton/Porter to Valparaiso to Hebron to Winfield to Crown Point and back or something). I guess busses would due for a start but light rail would be even better because light rail need not be dependent on roads or subject to rush hour gridlock and traffic jams.
4. Ring City transit - I still say the E. J & E. railroad line would make a perfect rim commuter railroad around Chicago. See map. It would take Illinois, Indiana and probably the Federal Government working together to set something up but I bet passenger and freight could both use that line.
5. Interurban from NW Indiana to Indianapolis - Probably should go from NW Indiana to Lafayette to Indy, high speed, multiple times daily. Indianapolis needs to make connections to re-anchor NW Indiana away from Chicago's orbit. They really have not done much since Interstate 65 was built in the 1960's. Folks in Indianapolis are not thrilled to have the South Shore feeding people into Chicago, but unless they offer an alternative, nobody in NW Indiana is going to look towards Indianapolis for economic, or cultural opportunity.
6. Land routes around the southern tip of Lake Michigan - frankly this needs to be addressed. I'm not sure building more highways for trucks, like the Illiana, is the best way to solve this. Perhaps dedicated high-speed fright rail corridors, owned by the Feds with private railroads paying trackage rights would be the way to go given our dependence on foreign oil and the pollution problems. The bottom line is that this problem needs a coherent transportation plan from the Federal government and Indiana and Illinois. Right now Washington cannot seem to apply itself to anything but the war in Iraq so I don't see anything happening on this front for years.
1. Extend the South Shore rail road to both Lowell and Valparaiso. Frankly this is years overdue and needs to be addressed.
2. Bus service - both fixed route and flex route needs to be expanded. I am not a big fan of busses, but they have their place. Outlying towns (like Hebron) that are not on one of the rail lines need fixed schedule bus service to take them to a rail line, market town or other transportation hub. It is important that all bus-stops be clearly marked and routes and timetables published. Right now the bus stops are not well marked, if they are marked at all, and this discourages adoption of mass bus transit use by the public. Every bus stop is an advertisement for the bus service, but people will not use what they do not know about. This is also the problem for flex route (or bus on demand) service, it is a good idea but publicizing it is going to be difficult. I see bus service as a stop-gap measure with the goal being light rail along heavily used corridors. 100 years ago we had light rail connecting the whole region but that got killed off by the automobile.
3. Rim connections - The South Shore lines proposed are all spokes leading into Chicago, but there needs to be scheduled mass transit service around the rim of the area: (e. g.: Chesterton/Porter to Valparaiso to Hebron to Winfield to Crown Point and back or something). I guess busses would due for a start but light rail would be even better because light rail need not be dependent on roads or subject to rush hour gridlock and traffic jams.
4. Ring City transit - I still say the E. J & E. railroad line would make a perfect rim commuter railroad around Chicago. See map. It would take Illinois, Indiana and probably the Federal Government working together to set something up but I bet passenger and freight could both use that line.
5. Interurban from NW Indiana to Indianapolis - Probably should go from NW Indiana to Lafayette to Indy, high speed, multiple times daily. Indianapolis needs to make connections to re-anchor NW Indiana away from Chicago's orbit. They really have not done much since Interstate 65 was built in the 1960's. Folks in Indianapolis are not thrilled to have the South Shore feeding people into Chicago, but unless they offer an alternative, nobody in NW Indiana is going to look towards Indianapolis for economic, or cultural opportunity.
6. Land routes around the southern tip of Lake Michigan - frankly this needs to be addressed. I'm not sure building more highways for trucks, like the Illiana, is the best way to solve this. Perhaps dedicated high-speed fright rail corridors, owned by the Feds with private railroads paying trackage rights would be the way to go given our dependence on foreign oil and the pollution problems. The bottom line is that this problem needs a coherent transportation plan from the Federal government and Indiana and Illinois. Right now Washington cannot seem to apply itself to anything but the war in Iraq so I don't see anything happening on this front for years.
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