Community members were invited to learn more about the project and ask questions.

WARSAW — Warsaw residents could have a new way to travel to Chicago if a proposed Northern Indiana Passenger Rail goes into effect. A public meeting was held last night, Oct. 24, at Warsaw City Hall to discuss the specifics.

“Obviously the city of Warsaw, with our industry here, felt this was a very important project to get in the queue, get in line, do the work that’s necessary,” said Warsaw Mayor Joseph Thallemer.

The proposed passenger rail would travel from Lima, OH to Chicago, with a station in Warsaw. It was noted that with one of the proposed options, a trip from Warsaw to Chicago would take one hour and 18 minutes. Additional station locations include Gary, Valparaiso, Plymouth and Fort Wayne.

Each station would include automated ticketing kiosks, restrooms, bicycle storage and parking. Warsaw’s station will be located on the CSX rail line, but the exact location has yet to be determined. Two of the five possible locations are downtown.

The passenger line would meet alternative transportation needs and relieve highway congestion. It was noted during the presentation that transportation choices support economic competitiveness and economic development goals.

The rail line would travel along the current freight line. Infrastructure improvements would be necessary to accommodate the possible speeds of up to 110 mph. Currently, freight trains that travel through Warsaw reach a maximum of 40 mph.

During the presentations, representative of NIPR noted the benefits of traveling by passenger rail. They stated that a trip on the passenger rail would cost less than one person driving the route, that you could be productive during the trip instead of having to drive and that the trip times would be competitive with, if not quicker, than driving times.

Initial studies show that the annual revenue from ticket sales and congestion would not cover the annual operating and maintenance costs. One example of four daily routes at 79 mph would generate $20,900,000 of annual revenue and cost $28,943,000. This is where local government and organizations would come in to fill the gap.

Thallemer stated that the local community has already invested $70,000 into the project. Investments were provided by the city of Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Orthoworx, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce, Grace College, KedCo, the town of Winona Lake and the Kosciusko County Community Foundation. Thallemer noted that these contributions show there is interest in the local community for such a project.

Moving forward, NIPR will continue with preliminary engineering work. If federal funding for the project is received, construction can begin with the initiation of service to start as early as 2025.

Warsaw Mayor Joseph Thallemer explained how Warsaw would benefit from the proposed passenger rail line.

The rail line would follow this route from Lima, Ohio to Chicago.