RDA President and CEO Bill Hanna recently sat down with Inside Indiana Businesses' Gerry Dick to talk about South Shore expansion.
Passage of legislation that provides $6 million a year for 30 years to expand commuter rail is "hugely significant for us," Hanna said. "It puts us on parity with Illinois suburbs and will help us reestablish the middle class in Northwest Indiana." Watch the whole thing here.
After Bill's segment, IIB's panel of experts also discussed rail expansion's impact, calling it a "huge regional economic development success" for NWI. You can watch their conversation here.
Since our inception in 2006, the RDA has invested about $30 million in regional transportation projects, including new rail cars for the South Shore commuter rail line, and parking and station improvements for the ChicaGo Dash service. Commuters who use these services every day to travel to jobs in Chicago bring back a combined $430 million in personal income annually to spend on goods and services here in Northwest Indiana. The West Lake Corridor expansion will result in an additional $231 million in personal income for the regional economy.
