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Fort Wayne, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) - It’s been decades but Fort Wayne is on track to get passenger rail back in the Summit City. The group advocating for the new passenger rail system announced Thursday that a feasibility study will be done.
The Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association has proposed a new route west to Chicago, and another one east to Columbus, Ohio. It’s a plan that would connect with multiple other systems either in the works or in the planning stages across the mid-west.
The study will be done over the next few months and completed by December. The cost is $80,000. The money was raised through private donors, the city and Allen County.
Getting the feasibility study done is something NIPRA says will help make Fort Wayne competitive for federal funding that has already been allocated for rail projects in 2013.
"The study will quantify what we believe will be strong economic development numbers and also give us an idea of, not only how much it will cost to build the system but how much it might cost to sustain the system. And how we might see funding for that, not only with passenger fares but through public/private partnerships and other opportunities for funding," said Geoff Paddock, Board Member, NIPRA.
High speed rail had been discussed before in Fort Wayne. This rail project will mean faster speeds but it is not true high speed rail. If this project happens the passenger trains will travel between 79 and 110 miles per hour.
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