Published: August 29, 2009 10:21 pm         

Mark Bennett: As gas prices stay below $4 a gallon, demand for alternative travel options fades

TERRE HAUTE — Last spring, an announcement by President Obama had people talking about rail passenger service returning to Terre Haute.

But going beyond a talking stage gets complicated, especially when it involves an entrenched government proposal.

In April, Obama committed $8 billion of the federal stimulus package to develop high-speed rail passenger corridors around the country. In March, his administration tagged $1.3 Billion in stimulus funds to enhance slower-speed “light rail” Amtrak routes.

In theory, both projects could bring rail passenger service back through Terre Haute for the first time since 1979. A high-speed rail line connecting Indianapolis and St. Louis — two of the Midwest’s largest cities — could bisect Terre Haute and seems worth consideration. Meanwhile, a conventional, Amtrak-style line from Evansville to Chicago also could pass through Terre Haute.

Those possibilities sounded good in the springtime. Unfortunately, neither has made it onto the drawing boards.

When Obama announced the plan for 10 high-speed rail corridors throughout the country, the administration used a map of prospective routes. Chicago served as the Midwest hub, on that proposal, with routes extending through northwest Indiana to Cleveland; south through Indianapolis and then Louisville; southeast through Indy and Cincinnati, and then north to Dayton and Columbus, Ohio; and southwest to St. Louis and then Kansas City. But a St. Louis-to-Indianapolis route had not been included.

That map dated back to 1991, and Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Rob Kulat said, “It’s not set in stone.” States could pitch their own ideas for alternate routes, he added.

Maybe it’s not set in stone, but local and state officials don’t see much interest in altering that guideline map.

“We’re not hearing a lot of feedback that they’re looking at any changes in that plan from [1991],” said Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett.

Indeed, the deadline was Monday for states to apply to the FRA for the first wave of stimulus high-speed rail funding. In that initial round, Indiana applied for $71.4 million to expand existing tracks in northern Indiana for a Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed route. Indiana did not apply for first-wave funds for the Chicago-to-Cleveland and Chicago-to-Cincinnati lines because the state would not have qualified for 100 percent stimulus funding, said Will Wingfield, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation. The state will seek second-wave stimulus funding for those projects in October. It also hopes to get 100-percent stimulus funding for a feasibility study that could assess the practicality of other routes, such as Indianapolis-to-St. Louis, Wingfield said.

“What we want to do is make high-speed rail successful in Indiana,” Wingfield said, “and choose the best possible routes.”

As suggested by the FRA, Terre Haute officials voiced their interest in having an Indy-to-St. Louis line added to the map. The Terre Haute Metropolitan Planning Organization’s policy committee adopted a resolution supporting a high-speed route through the city, as well as a conventional rail line from Evansville to Chicago. The state’s leading rail-passenger advocacy group — the Indiana High Speed Rail Association — endorsed the inclusion of Indy-to-St. Louis on the proposed national grid. “I think Terre Haute is important enough to include on even the express routes,” said Dennis Hodges, founder of that nonprofit group.

But so far, no such change has made it onto the map. Wingfield suggests local officials should lobby Indiana’s members of Congress to push for any optional routes.

Even the less-complicated rail possibility — the Evansville-to-Chicago lower-speed passenger line — has stalled in the idea station.

A proposed bill in the Indiana General Assembly to fund a $300,000 feasibility study of the Evansville-to-Chicago line (with a stop in Terre Haute) got scrapped as the state budget battle went into overtime.

“We’re still interested in pursuing [any type of rail passenger service], but [we] kind of got shot down in the easier possibility,” said Ron Hisenkamp, chief transportation planner for the Terre Haute Metropolitan Planning Organization. The MPO received nearly 30 positive responses from local people in April, concerning the rail possibilities.

The rail bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dennis Avery (D-Evansville), said western Indiana has been neglected before when rail initiatives are considered. He also said, “It’s going to require more than one state legislator talking about it.”

Interest in rail travel surged when gasoline prices shot above $4 a gallon. Not surprisingly, the intensity waned as gas prices have fallen to their current $2.50 level. More often, now, skeptics see Obama’s ideas for enhanced mass transportation as overreaching and too costly.

Apathy — triggered by cheaper gas prices — won’t last, Avery predicted. Four-dollar-a-gallon costs at the pump will cure that.

“I don’t think [apathy] is a long-term issue. I think gas prices will go back up,” he said, “and people will start to look at rail again.”

That doesn’t sound too comforting.



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.