The fast track: imagine how well high-speed rail fits in Indiana's transportation future.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Cover Story

Imagine leaving your downtown Indianapolis office at 9:00 for a lunch meeting in Chicago. You and two colleagues walk three blocks to Union Station and climb aboard the new high-speed train. You pull up chairs around a conference table as the train pulls out of the station, and plug in a laptop to finalize a PowerPoint presentation. Halfway to Chicago, you take a break at the train's bistro and order cappuccinos. Two hours and 20 minutes after departing Indianapolis, the train pulls into Chicago's Union Station, just a short cab ride to your appointment in the loop.

Imagine boarding the high-speed train at Fort Wayne's newly renovated Baker Street Train Station, or at Lafayette's relocated and restored Big Four Depot. From either city it's a 90-minute trip to downtown Chicago.

A group of visionary Hoosiers would like to make these scenarios reality. They've been quietly making their case to citizens, civic leaders and lawmakers, and hope that the state this year will make a downpayment on their vision by authorizing environmental and engineering studies of high-speed rail possibilities.

HIGH-SPEED RAIL VISIONARIES

Leading the push to bring high-speed rail to a track near you is the Indiana High Speed Rail Association a Highland-based group of civic and business leaders launched about eight years ago and steered by founder and executive director W, Dennis Hodges. It began as a handful of enthusiasts, mostly from northwest Indiana, but has grown to some 225 members that include numerous corporations and cities.

Hodges is a Gary native who serves as a public-policy advisor to foreign diplomats in the Midwest and organizes corporate events for foreign government offices in the United States. Foreign travel inspired his enthusiasm for high-speed rail. For him, overseas visits revealed just how much it could add to this country's transportation options. "I've spent a lot of time traveling by train in Europe, and I felt Indiana and the Midwest were clue for improvements in the passenger-rail system. I think we've reached a point in our society where all modes of transportation must be researched and developed."

While high-speed rail is a new and novel concept for most Americans, it's an everyday reality for those in Europe and Japan, says Mike Pracht, vice president of marketing and business development for Siemens Transportation Systems, which manufactures trains and other equipment needed for rail systems. "In the rest of the industrialized world, they began developing these intercity rail connections back in the '60s and '70s," he says. "I would call that higher-speed rail, and it became high-speed rail in the '70s and '80s. The objective was to provide alternative transportation options between city pairs, to provide a more balanced transportation system. The U.S. has never done that."

Determined to nudge Indiana in a direction that Europeans and Asians embraced decades ago, the Indiana High Speed Rail Association has quietly gone about the business of educating the public and lobbying government officials. The movement has gained speed and proponents as the efforts have...