Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Thursday, May 29, 2014
(HAMMOND ) - Governor Pence joins Amtrak and Norfolk and Southern representatives this morning in Hammond to inaugurate a railroad upgrade.
Indiana will spend 71-million dollars to build new sidings and passing tracks and improve existing crossovers to speed up what INDOT's Will Wingfield says is one of the state's most congested rail corridors.
One estimate says the Indiana Gateway project will chop half an hour off Amtrak travel time between Chicago and Detroit, though Wingfield says he can't confirm that.
The money is left over from the federal stimulus five years ago. Then-Governor Mitch Daniels signed a deal in 2012 to upgrade the corridor.
The project is scheduled for completion in two years.
Wingfield says the improvements will boost the economy by allowing cargo to pass through the industrial northwest more quickly.
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