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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe opening paragraphs of Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness’ profile by IBJ’s Lindsey Erdody demonstrate insights into his governance: ignorance, disingenuousness or dishonesty [Fishers mayor a rising star in Republican party, Aug. 14]. In Ms. Erdody’s piece, Fadness says he voted against the historic and community economic development tool—the Nickel Plate Railroad and our State Fair Train—because he “doesn’t see a future in mass transportation.”
Mr. Mayor, neither do we.
That’s why our focus has always been to provide quality historic and fun rail experiences as excursion trains and opening our rail yard as a museum.
His campaign against the Indiana Transportation Museum and the Nickel Plate Railroad goes deeper than just giving the ITM and Nickel Plate Railroad a hard time. Despite months of discussions, negotiations and lawsuits brought by ITM, there is still no indication why Fadness, with the collusion of the Hoosier Heritage Port Authority, the city of Noblesville and Hamilton County, set out to destroy the historic and beloved State Fair Train, the Polar Bear Express and ITM.
The Port Authority’s campaign of destruction began 11 years ago with its refusal to negotiate an operating agreement with ITM, followed with bogus allegations the tracks were “unsafe” and then the authority stopped the running of the State Fair Train with only three days’ notice. This was followed by the unexpected and unilateral announcement Fishers planned to rip up the rails for a walking trail, ignoring our recommendations—proven in other locales—that trails with rails work well.
This was followed by a ridiculous, panic-inducing news release from Noblesville that said our site at Forest Park was an environmental nightmare, which eventually, their own engineer, IDEM and EPA disavowed. We have housecleaning to do, but nothing to merit the strident tone of their allegations.
Finally, using an RFP process that industry experts said was flawed from the beginning, the historic Nickel Plate line will be forever destroyed. Our marketing studies demonstrated that our trains and the museum were the second highest tourist draw for Hamilton County. Thousands of children and families created life-time memories on our train rides. Our long-term vision was to create excursion trains to downtown Indianapolis.
Let me repeat that: excursion trains, not mass transportation, mayor.
So, reading between the rails, what’s the mayor’s real reason for destroying a historic rail icon? We wish we knew.
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John McNichols, president
Indiana Transportation Museum
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