Motorists who have begged city officials for a schedule for when trains will pass through the State Road 46/State Road 11 intersection have a new option. A schedule isn’t available, but a heads-up website notification is now online.
A Columbus web-based train status page is operational allowing anyone with internet access to check if a train is approaching the busy west-side intersection so they may avoid the wait while traveling into or out of the city. Access to notifications about approaching trains can be reached at columbusrailroadproject.org.
The technology behind the page was designed by Isaiah Bowman, a Purdue Polytechnic Columbus senior who is completing his bachelor of science degree in computer information technology.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and other city officials have been working with Purdue Polytechnic students since last year on a notification system for approaching trains. Louisville & Indiana Railroad, and the CSX trains that are using the line through Columbus, do not follow a regular schedule.
Longer, heavier and faster CSX trains will begin traveling through Columbus on L&I’s rail system beginning this month. The railroad and CSX Transportation won approval in April 2015 from the federal Surface Transportation Board to use L&I’s 106-mile mainline between Louisville and Indianapolis jointly and upgrade it from jointed steel rails to continuous welded ones.
The plan calls for CSX to shift an estimated 13 to 15 trains per day to the L&I line, in addition to the L&I trains.
A 2016 study by Indianapolis engineering firm American Structurepoint Inc. indicated as many as 22 trains may travel through the State Road 46/State Road 11 intersection, and other Columbus downtown intersections.
Bowman, 22, is an Indianapolis native who is on a work-study program with Cummins, Inc. and hopes to work there after completing his degree.
He began working on the train notification system in August 2017 with a team of three other students, the group assisted city officials to select detection cameras and tools that would allow a notification system to work reliably.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
