Community Meeting Planned On Latest Nickel Plate Rail Developments

Fishers faces a significant challenge to its trail-only plan for the Nickel Plate Railroad corridor.

U.S. Rail recently filed new motions that would prevent the corridor from being converted into just a trail. The filings state that USR has no objection to and even supports a trail alongside the reactivated rail line, says Save The Nickel Plate president Ty Mendenhall.

“U.S. Rail wants to run light freight, which scares a lot of people, but it‘s really not that big of a deal," Mendenhall says. "First Transit is looking to run passenger service, mostly recreational.”

Mendenhall says interested residents can find out more about the latest development Monday during a community meeting at 6 p.m. at Roy G. Holland Memorial Park Building, 1 Park Drive.

“It will be more like an open house. A lot of information booths set up around the room. People can come and ask questions so we will have rail people there, trail people there," Mendenhall says. "We’ll have people from the engineering group there to answer questions and mainly take feedback.”

Fishers, Noblesville and Hamilton County leaders announced in 2017 they wanted to convert part of the Nickel Plate Rail Corridor into a pedestrian trail. U.S. Rail contends there is a clear need for rail transportation on the line.

For more information about the community meeting and the ongoing development of the vision study, visit https://www.indyrwt.com.