Fishers plans to move forward with the trail
A standing-room-only crowd at the Holland Park shelter house heard a presentation from Jacobs Engineering Monday night on several visions of a train, or trail plus train, along the Nickel Plate rail line. There was talk of the value the Nickel Plate Rail has to the regional potential for train connections north of Indianapolis. There was a lot of information about the value of the rail and how a rail and trail operation could exist together along the rail line.
Chad St. John, Project Manager for Jacobs, and Meghan McMullen, Urban Planner for the engineering firm, spent several minutes explaining the various options, with a good part of the presentation aimed at the rails plus trail possibilities for the Nickel Plate.
One aspect missing from Monday night’s discussion was what the rails and trails combination would cost. The City of Fishers released an engineering study completed by the Indianapolis engineering firm of Butler, Fairman & Seufert in February, showing a rails and trails combination along the Nickel Plate line would cost a minimum of $20.5 million on top of the cost for a trail only.
Ty Mendenhall of “Save The Nickel Plate” said after the Monday presentation that this was not a feasibility study.
“Whether we go in that direction or not is going to depend on some of the feedback we get here tonight, and other things that happen,” Mendenhall said. “Seems like things change day-to-day on this situation.”
Chad St. John, Project Manager for Jacobs, discusses trains and trails for the Nickel Plate. (Photo provided)
Save The Nickel Plate is not anti-trail, according to Mendenhall. His concern is the regional impact a trails-only plan would have on the train network north of Indianapolis.
Fishers City Director of Engineering Jason Taylor watched the Monday presentation and described the people pushing for the rail with trail along the Nickel Plate as interest groups not living in Fishers and not in touch with the Fishers community.
“The rail with trail project this group is proposing represents just 4 percent of the Fishers population’s wishes,” said Taylor. “The residents do not want freight, and the City of Fishers does not support any proposal that leads to freight cars travelling through neighborhoods and running through our city, clogging traffic on major thoroughfares multiple times a day. The City still stands by its independent, professional assessment that shows rails with trails is not realistic.”
The City of Fishers has included funding in the 2019 budget to begin constructing the trail along the Nickel Plate, beginning this fall.