Save the Nickel Plate, Inc.
In an announcement Wednesday, the Noblesville Parks Department revealed that they voted not to renew their lease of property within Forest Park to the Indiana Transportation Museum (ITM). Our group is very disappointed, albeit not surprised, to learn of Wednesday’s display of continued political maneuvering aimed at further eroding and degrading the continuity of the Nickel Plate railroad throughout Hamilton County and Central Indiana. It’s especially disappointing after considering the Rail to Trail Conservancy’s report on Rails with Trails, which clearly depicts the combination as one of the best solutions for developing trails along active rail corridors.
The Nickel Plate Trail controversy is a conflict fraught with questionable ethical practices and multiple betrayals of public trust by those officials who were elected and appointed to positions within our local governments. Today’s announcement is just one link in a long chain of official misconduct directed at the forcible demise of the Nickel Plate railroad. The motives of such actions have, to date, continued to elude our complete understanding. Is it selfish personal interests of a few peoples’ vision of a Hamilton County without rails? Or is it perhaps an even more troubling theme of collusion, bribes and campaign contributions all leading to the planned conversion of the Nickel Plate rail corridor to a trail? We may never know, but there are certainly hints of each element contained within government emails recovered through Indiana Access to Public Records (IAPR) requests.
Today’s continued affront of the existing railroad museum and rail corridor as a whole, seems to be the fulfilled “prophecy” of Noblesville Deputy Mayor, Steve Cooke. In three emails originating from Cooke’s government email account, he is quoted as having said:
“Work with community leaders to bring an end to the rail line,” “we’ll certainly be excited to pull up the tracks from 8th Street and over SR32/38,” and “this is an opportunity [railbanking] we couldn’t delay given the potential investment that would go into fixing the train tracks.”
Though these quotes are merely a glimpse at the nearly 5,000 emails we’ve received so far via multiple IAPR requests, they best represent the nefarious nature of our government officials’ intent to secretly plan the removal of the tracks and the museum for their own interest and without genuine, collaborative public input. Cooke’s last quote indicates that there may have existed an opportunity to repair the rails; but that railbanking was hastily pursued to stifle that possibility.
It is imperative to revisit the start of this issue which was initiated by whistleblowers from within the ITM publicly sharing their allegations of rail and equipment safety, among other concerns.
The Hoosier Heritage Port Authority (HHPA) immediately suspended ITM operations pending safety inspections of the rails. Five separate Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) reports found there to be “No Violations” recommended. Additionally, and even more compelling, the private report paid for by the HHPA, made the following statement in the executive summary on the very first page:
“The Consultant has never encountered a 37-mile length of track where there has been so little drainage issues for the majority of the trackage . . . The light rail, joints, and turnouts are in surprisingly good to fair condition . . . overall the steel components of the track are in relatively good condition.”
Even more surprising, the President of the HHPA, Michael Obergfell, attended an FRA inspection of the railroad line and said that the FRA inspectors indicated that the line was in overall good condition for a tourist railroad, with only a few isolated spots that needed attention. Obergfell is also a VP at USI Consultants, which has more than $2 million worth of roadway and other transportation contracts within Hamilton County. Is this conflict of interest responsible for the persistent message that the rails are too unsafe to use?
With all evidence indicating that the rails were in safe condition with only some maintenance needed for the types of trains being operated, how did the suspension of operations remain in effect? Ultimately the suspension led to the proposed Nickel Plate Trail and the new Nickel Plate Heritage Railroad combining to become the “compromise” solution for a problem that never existed.
Is it possible that the Nickel Plate Trail was predestined and already being developed before the rail safety allegations? All one must do is simply look back to 2013, when the Fishers Train Station was torn down, to realize that the railroad was officially on the political chopping block as far back as then. While it’s easy to look back and say, “How didn’t we see this coming and why didn’t we stop it?” it is important to focus on the present situation and demand that the plan be halted immediately and that our elected officials be held accountable. It is without question that the public trust has been betrayed multiple times throughout this ordeal. To date, supporters have indicated that the City of Fishers has continued to deflect and delay multiple IAPR requests while Noblesville and Hamilton County have been fully compliant and cooperative. Is there something that Fishers doesn’t want us to see which may implicate their highest-ranking officials in this ongoing act of conspiracy and collusion? We may never know if they aren’t made to comply with the IAPR requests.
A supporter of our efforts spoke some very sobering words in light of these recent events: “Truth should be the authority, not authority the truth.” This phrase has never rang more true than amid the misconceptions and frequent distortions of facts which have consumed the spirit of the Nickel Plate Trail. Train supporters do not necessarily oppose a trail, but rather acknowledge and desire the alternative of a trail being developed along the current rails while preserving the history and expanding the operations of the railroad. But at a minimum, they seek transparency and accountability within their government, which would come in the form of a large public forum to openly discuss and consider all of the facts and details of the proposed Nickel Plate Trail.
Central Indiana residents are urged to “Like” and follow our group on Facebook in order to stay connected with future updates and receive notification of an upcoming rally being planned for early January 2018.
Click here to read the emails and other supporting documents referred to in this story.