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Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

The good news is that the commuter rail plan passes with a unanimous vote. The bad news is that we may be stuck with seriously out of date technology. Planners want to use old, heavy and inefficient diesel engines with used passenger cars. If we get this we'll never be rid of them. People will argue that the old units work fine and Indianapolis will 1960's commuter rail. The 2035 goal of having the double line with 19 stations also lacks vision. It is about 20 years too slow. There should be an aggressive plan to make this happen much sooner and there should be an aggressive plan to get funding for MDUs to run the line instead of the heavy diesel units. I've ridden these many times and MDUs are very quiet and don't pollute anything like the bigger units. Also because of the weight they accelerate and decelerate much faster than the larger units which will improve travel times greatly.

I do personally think electrified rail routes are the way to go. Diesel is very expensive and will likely become more expensive with time. Yes installing an electrified route is more expensive but it is very clean and electric trains are much quieter. Actually they are whisper quiet compared to diesels. Planners used the excuse that Indianapolis power is coal based. Yes. For now. But the beauty if electrified rail is that it doesn't matter what the power source is. It can be coal, nuclear or even wind power. And if you've paid attention to the news and the trucks on the highway (carrying turbine blades) you'll know that wind power is a rapidly growing industry.

Planners... show a little imagination and set the bar as high as you can and not as low as you can.

Read the Indy Star report.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/p...e?AID=/20080926/NEWS/809260481