Gas is $4.14 and What are We Doing About Mass Transit?A

The Indianapolis Star gives us some news on the light rail system in Choosing the right track:

"As gasoline prices climb above $4 a gallon, pressure is building on area planners to develop a public transit system quickly, efficiently and without breaking the bank.

The leading option would rely on the next generation of commuter trains: diesel light rail locomotives that are less costly than electric-powered trains and quieter and less polluting than traditional engines.
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The Metropolitan Planning Organization is recommending these 'light diesel' vehicles for a $160 million, 19-mile line that could be built over the next three to five years from 146th Street in Fishers to Downtown Indianapolis."

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Also, regardless of which approach is chosen, the old Nickel Plate tracks proposed for the line will need to be ripped up and replaced, at a cost of $40 million to $50 million.

Art Hall, chairman of the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville, thinks his proposal to use old museum trains would be the most economical.

He wants planners to consider using his fleet of four traditional locomotives and eight passenger cars.

With a little bit of upgrading and modernization -- think televisions, refreshments and wireless Internet in a comfortable setting -- Hall, 61, predicts a decent starter commuter rail line could be up and running for less than $20 million.

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Though their engines are smaller, DMUs are able to reach speeds of 60 mph to 70 mph -- about twice the speed of some traditional locomotives -- and can seat about 90 people in a single-level car. By comparison, a traditional coach would hold about 60.

The planning organization is proposing using double-decker cars that can accommodate up to 145 seated commuters and as many as 360 standing commuters.

Also, DMUs are hybrids that can be easily converted to run on electricity, said Sisler, a Cleveland-based veteran transit developer who is a member of an Ohio committee on rail.

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The proposed commuter route here -- it would run from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. at 30-minute intervals -- would mean noise and pollution for those who live along the tracks.

The Star has a map of the proposed route within Marion County here.

We needed mass transit more than what we needed all the wasted energy over the Interstate Commerce Connector. Nothing should show the problem with Mitch Daniels' and a vision for Indiana as does our lack of mass transit. He talks about having a vision but no evidence exists that he is not looking backward down the path.

My wife commutes to Noblesville. Every rise in gas prices creates a violent reaction in her. She tells me she would take a train to Noblesville so she could work. Right now she cannot understand how those co-workers getting only minimum wage are able to drive to work.

Why Doesn't Mitch Daniels Want an Increase in Federal Gas Taxes?

I saw Governor urges Ind. delegation to vote against gas tax increase after I wrote my post Mitch Daniels and Roads - Following a Bush Ideology?.

Daniels sent a letter to all members of Indiana’s congressional delegation, saying an increase in federal gas taxes would be harmful and unnecessary for Hoosiers. The lease of the Indiana Toll Road has funded transportation needs in Indiana for at least a decade, he said, without using taxes or borrowing.

“Simply put, we do not need the money and our citizens clearly do not need the additional taxes,” Daniels said.

Daniels also noted that for every dollar paid by an Indiana driver, the state gets just 92 cents back in federal highway funding, with the rest going to projects in other states.

“Please don’t make a bad deal worse,” Daniels wrote. “Indiana would be far better off if the federal government abolished its gas tax and let us collect and reinvest what we need here at home.”

Putting this with what I wrote earlier and with our Governor's love for selling off state assets just makes me suspicious.

Besides, the Governor shows his limited understanding of finance. Mitch keeps touting how much his 75 year lease of the toll road will pay for every highway and its upkeep - perhaps till the end of time. Mitch has trouble getting the highway project already done for state highways (see the comments to the Star-Press article). Now he thinks Hoosiers would be better off without any federal funding? Where is going to get that money? Hike the state gas tax? Rely on property taxes?

I strongly suspect that we will find Mitch Daniels' solution for maintaining Indiana's highways is to turn all of them into toll roads.

Mitch Daniels and Roads - Following a Bush Ideology?

I asked myself that question this morning reading She Brakes for Ideology in today's Washington Post. After all does this not sound like Mitch Daniels's justification behind the Toll Road lease and Interstate Commerce Connector proposal and the I-69 toll road proposal:

You can see the effect of the Bush ideology in recent reports, as recounted by The Post's Amy Gardner last week, that the administration is yet again looking for excuses to kill rapid transit rail to Dulles Airport. Having jumped through every hoop demanded -- giving up on a tunnel through Tysons Corner, cutting $300 million in costs -- the region finds itself facing another, unexplained roadblock. But if you understand the Bush philosophy, the roadblock isn't so hard to explain: If profit alone -- and not clean air, or joining the rest of the civilized world in connecting airports to cities, or any other consideration -- matters, then Dulles rail no doubt slides down the priority list.

News of the I-69 south expansion

The Muncie Star-Press published an AP article on the I-69 expansion. 416 homes could be in way of I-69 south expansion.

"Officials have taken another regulatory step toward expanding Interstate 69 by releasing a 1,000-page environmental impact statement that outlines why they chose the 142-mile route to link Indianapolis and Evansville."

Taking Down Words has I-69 Update: Where The Road Will Go, How Many Will Have To Move.

I see nothing about this from The Herald Bulletin site.

Roads and economic development and Elwood

I have not had much time to look at the papers today. Well, I looked at Muncie and I looked the Herald-Bulletin. Still got a lot of stories about snow. Then I see this article about how the ten year DOT plan does not include expanding 37 to four lanes into Elwood. Yeah, give Mitch points for having vision and wanting to spread the economic development into the smaller cities and towns of Indiana.

Now would the story be the same if Mitch could find a way to give a slice of the action to someone like Bechtel or Halliburton?