In the mid-to-late 1800s, Terre Haute gained a bit of a reputation as a transportation hub with the establishment of Chauncey Rose’s Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad. The railroad served the needs of the community and connected us with our state’s capitol. But flash forward to 2011 and the railroads, now owned by the likes of CSX and The Indiana Rail Road, no longer serve any meaningful purpose to the Terre Haute community. Like most American cities, our industry now utilizes the interstate highway system. And yet the trains have somehow continued to operate within the city limits and even become a considerable nuisance, blocking traffic during rush hour, blaring horns at all hours of the day and night, and causing blight along their combined thirty-two miles of city track. CSX owes the city over $60,000 in fines for this blight but refuses to pay up, and the Republican leadership has provided few ideas. “You can put a lien on the property, but if they own the property forever, what can you do?” says Mayor Bennett.

He formed a committee back in 2008, most recently known as the “Terre Haute Urbanized Area Railroad Corridor Study,” which focuses primarily on relocating the tracks. They’ve received various funds for projects, including a $1,000,000 pledge from the rail companies themselves and nearly $500,000 from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) with Senator Richard Lugar’s assistance. Their current goal is to work on the “preliminary development and screening of a series of independently usable projects that can be incrementally advanced over the next 5 to 20 years.” The plans alone will consume the $500,000 and the city will be left to secure additional funding for actually implementing the plans.

A simple starter project could be to upgrade the all of the railroad crossings to highway-rail grade and ask the FRA to establish Quiet Zones in the city of Terre Haute. These zones have been allowed for by federal regulation 49 CFR Parts 222 and 229 since 2005. A highway-rail grade crossing prevents vehicles from squeezing between or around the crossing gate, as you so often see local drivers doing, and in return the trains only have to sound their horn if they see someone on the track instead of on every approach as they now do. The only costs here are the upgrading of the individual crossings and installation of the NO TRAIN HORN (W10-9P) plaques.

Another low cost option could be having our elected officials work with the FRA and the rail companies to restrict train schedules during rush hours. This would be a preferable solution over utilizing the eminent domain powers of the city to shut down the tracks, as that would quickly rack up the city’s legal costs. And it would serve the community great temporary relief for this “5 to 20 year” period while we address the problem.

How about installing underpasses and overpasses? This is how most cities in the US have dealt with the problem of the trains. It’s a significant investment, but not as much as relocating the tracks could prove to be. On a crossing by crossing basis, the city should evaluate which would be cheaper to put into place. A realistic goal is not to place them everywhere, but make it so that when traffic comes upon a closed crossing gate it only takes x number of minutes or y number of miles to reach a suitable way around the train. The rail companies may be willing to make a bargain with the city that in return for forgiving their past due fines, they close the sections of track for the period of time required to put each pass in place.

And why not push forward with the committee’s plans to relocate tracks? This may sound like it makes sense today, but you have to remember than when the rail lines were installed in the first place they were outside of the city limits. The city grew, and we can count on it growing again in the future. Urban sprawl is a given. By paying to relocate the tracks now, we’re simply delaying addressing the true issue, and wasting money in the long run. Our leaders in Washington are drawing high-speed rail maps today that may make trains relevant to our community again, and we may actually be doing ourselves a disservice if we once again push the tracks towards the outskirts of town.