The Indiana Passenger Rail Alliance held a meeting on April 25, 2023, where 34 stakeholders from Indiana (including 5 Mayors), Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio gathered to discuss the five (5) recently submitted grant requests to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
These grant requests to the FRA are for two programs:
- Corridor Identification and Development Program (Corridor ID)
- The Corridor ID Program is a comprehensive intercity passenger rail planning and development program that will help guide intercity passenger rail development throughout the country and create a pipeline of intercity passenger rail projects ready for implementation.
- This Program, fully supported by 48 Indiana Representatives and Senators, was introduced to Governor Holcomb in late December 2022.
- Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program (FSP-National)
- The FSP-National Program provides funding for capital projects that reduce the state of good repair backlog, improve performance, or expand or establish new intercity passenger rail service, including privately operated intercity passenger rail service, if an eligible applicant is involved.
The money associated with the grant requests submitted for Indiana will be used to generate plans to:
- Safely allow increase of the maximum speed of trains between Indianapolis and Dyer, IN above the current maximum of 59 MPH to the USA standard of 79 MPH
- Improve and increase frequency of intercity passenger rail between Indianapolis and Chicago
- Improve travel safety and speed through the Lafayette, IN CSX train yard
- Improve travel safety and speed through the Monon, IN interchange
- Restore passenger rail service between Fort Wayne and Chicago (extending to Columbus, OH and Pittsburgh, PA)
- Restore passenger rail service between Indianapolis and Louisville, KY
The grants, if the requests are accepted, will be provided by the FRA at no cost to Indiana. The deliverables for these projects (a.k.a. studies) would be plans for implementation of improvements to Indiana's rail infrastructure and passenger rail service. New or restored intermediate stations on these passenger rail services have not yet been determined.
The FRA will decide which grant requests to honor later this year, most likely by October. Once the Plans have been completed, the resulting projects will be funded by a combination of federal, state and other means.
