Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry touted the city’s continued development downtown and on the city’s southeast side on Wednesday in his 17th State of the City address that he called “Fort Wayne - Leading the Way.”
Henry also announced the Fort Wayne Police Department is exploring a new traffic division that could open the door for the already record-sized department to grow. He announced a plan to design a new fire station in Waynedale. He also acknowledged the possibility of passenger rail service returning to Fort Wayne.
“The prospect of passenger rail service returning to Fort Wayne got a significant boost recently with a grant from the Federal Railroad Administration,” Henry said.
Henry said because of the $500,000 federal grant from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Fort Wayne is now being considered for a central role in the establishment of a passenger rail service that would connect Chicago to Pittsburgh.
“We were finally able to secure a grant that would allow Fort Wayne to be the centerpiece,” Henry said.
After his speech, Henry said Fifth City Councilman Geoff Paddock (D.-5th) deserved “a lot of the credit for securing that grant.” Paddock said he and a team are working on a proposal to present to the FRA for that project that if accepted would open the door for the federal government to pay for 80% of the cost of establishing that rail service. Paddock said Henry including the project in his State of the City address is a “definite sign that this could finally come to fruition.”
Paddock said there is no timetable for that fruition to happen, only that the next step is getting project approval from the FRA.