Voice of the People

The South Shore expansion is not merely for the convenience of a few commuters.

The person who recently voiced that opinion offers a short sighted view of history. Instead, reflect on the fact that the South Shore will soon be celebrating 100 years of service. A century of carrying people and connecting northwest Indiana to Chicago, the cultural and economic Big Shoulders of the entire midwest.

This is not about a few commuters, but about our legacy and responsibility to the next 100 years. That consideration was one of my main objections to last year’s 75-year Toll Road lease.

Spend the next 100 years buying gas and putting more cars on the road, or build something that will serve not just today’s commuters, but our entire area in a number of ways?

It is an extremely narrow view that the economic justification for expanded rail is merely 6000 daily commuters. Get the bigger picture. Don’t count heads on the train, count households. That commuter likely has a spouse and two children who are members of the community and part of the regional economy. You all know what that means.

Expanded train service not only allows access to Chicago for quality of life issues, but it is also the environmentally smart thing to do.

That issue was properly raised by those objecting to the Illiana Expressway. More roads, more cars, is a short-term solution and does nothing to lower either dependence on foreign oil or greenhouse emissions.

I have not been in the State Senate so long as to think that $1 billion is not a lot of money. But we may be in a unique position to obtain half of that from the federal government — from money that we are already paying for federal highway projects. If that money does not come back to NW Indiana, it will go elsewhere. Let’s think Big.

Karen Tallian

State Senate District 4

Posted 10/9/2007