(The following story by Dan McFeely appeared on the Indianapolis Star website on March 14, 2009.)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A $1.3 billion federal investment in Amtrak will trickle down to the Beech Grove Amtrak maintenance facility, the White House announced Friday.
The local facility, which employs about 500, will share $82 million in federal stimulus projects with another facility in Delaware in order to fulfill an order to rebuild or repair 68 stored or damaged passenger train cars.
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The project could mean up to 125 new jobs for Amtrak here and in Delaware. In Beech Grove, the hiring has already begun.
A handful of machinists have been brought back, and others should be hired soon, said Mike Fisher, a 21-year employee who made the national spotlight last year by sharing his economic worries with the Obama campaign.
“I know they are already in the process of doing interviews and bringing a lot of people back to work, including many of my friends,” Fisher said. “We had been told that possibly by the end of 2009, the Beech Grove facility could be gone without this.”
Instead, this boost in business promises to keep workers busy for the next two or three years.
U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, D-Indianapolis, joined Vice President Joe Biden for the announcement in Washington.
Biden said the stimulus spending will double the size of Amtrak’s capital spending.
“Over 28 million passengers ride Amtrak each year. That’s about 500,000 passengers a week — or 80,000 a day,” Biden said. “For too long, we haven’t made the investments we needed to make Amtrak as safe, as reliable, as secure as it can be. That ends now.”
Many of the damaged cars have been stored at the Beech Grove facility, but little work has been done because of a lack of funding. Once repaired, the cars will be used to alleviate congested portions of the system or to begin new services.
Fisher said the news will change the mood in Beech Grove.
“We’ve been down in the dumps, thinking the future is not bright at all,” he said.
“I know this stimulus money is only good for two or three years, but that gives us two or three years to get more work in here and hopefully keep going.”