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According to a Statehouse source, the 3C Corridor should be officially receiving federal stimulus dollars tomorrow in an announcement following Obama’s State of the Union speech. In October 2009, ODOT and the Ohio Rail Development Commission submitted their application for $563 million to help fund a passenger rail line that would run between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati. More information about the 3C Corridor can be found at 3cisme.ohio.gov. More information about tomorrow’s announcement can be found in a Dispatch article here.
Update #1: Gov. Strickland’s office is planning a news conference today (Thursday) in the Statehouse Rotunda at 1pm. Anyone planning on attending?
Update #2: It’s official. The 3C Corridor is receiving $400M in federal funding.
Yeah, the “universal use” argument is fairly thin and played out. I’ll use my Kreskin like abilities and say that the train won’t make money, nor should it be expected to anymore than highways make money or buses make money. Will it provide development along the various stops? Probably. Will it provide access to trains for a city that should have had them a long time ago? Definitely.
Good enough for me, at least for a start.
It seems to me that there will always be a group of naysayers that see nothing positive in having a commuter rail system. It fascinates me, that given the history of rail in this country, that we’ve turned our backs on it.
It’s not like the TGV in France was that country’s first rail system. They took many interim steps in Europe, to get to the high speed solutions they have today. For the 3C system going all out, without making those babysteps would likely, IMHO, cause more harm than good; cost more; and increase the public skepticism.
Additionally, we’re able to offer rail service for $500 million or so, as opposed to $1.5 billion for a “high speed” service. It was cited that Florida is getting $1.2 billion for a “high speed” service, and I’m assuming it was posted in a way to ask, “so, why aren’t we going after high speed.” It seems to me, that with the two cities being 90 miles apart, with some 7 million people between the two…not to mention the tourism, etc. they have in that part of the country, that high speed rail may make sense for them.
High speed rail makes sense for Ohio…and we’ll get there. This is just the first step on a long process. It’s been over 30 years since we’ve had ANY rail service in Columbus. So, I personally, welcome something.
One last long thought…it’s naive to think about our existing local transit system staying the same once we have inter-city rail service in place. We’ll see taxis and bus routes change, based on the needs of the travelers, and I don’t doubt that this will include some sort of express COTA service in to the suburbs, to coincide with rail schedules.
Labor Secretary Solis to Join Governor Strickland
for Passenger Rail Announcement Today
Columbus, Ohio – U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today will join Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, state and local officials, and passenger rail supporters to announce that Ohio will receive $400 million in federal rail money for Ohio’s 3C passenger rail service.
The event will be held at 1 p.m. today in the Statehouse Atrium.
Bottom line:
this will be a benefit to Ohio and Columbus.
Not sure if anyone answered this but the Dispatch article mentioned it could be up and running by next summer? Are there any renderings or plans for how the station under the convention center might look? Anyone know of any plans? I wonder if they plan on enclosing the train station or just leaving the tracks opened and adding platforms. I always loved the old classic looking train stations in Europe and hope we go that way, but realize that having the station under the convention center really takes a way the need for an aesthetically beautiful building. I’m just glad I will finally be able to catch a train to see a sporting event in Cincinnati or Cleveland! Much better than driving!
The only station renderings I’ve seen have been for Dayton & Southwest Cleveland. Here: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Rail/Programs/passenger/3CisME/Pages/StationLocations.aspx
I imagine we’ll start seeing more of them popping up soon. ;)
Looking forward to the first Columbus Underground Meetup on the 3CD train! Hmm – which city to visit first… A visit to the Jake? With trains it is much easier to make a day trip because you don’t have the long, tired drive back to town. Sure you may have a short drive from the train station to home, but that’s manageable (except for BuckeyeChuck apparently).
What are the odds that the old station archway will be moved to the new station? That would be icing for me but I’m not holding my breath.
“The first amendment is still in play in this country regardless of you’re liking it or not.”
http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/the-dispatch-is-freaking-me-out
“With trains it is much easier to make a day trip because you don’t have the long, tired drive back to town.”
They’ll have to change the proposed schedule first. Exhibit 6 in the Service Development Plan (see page 19 of 40) shows the last train to leave Cleveland at 3:30 PM. Not exactly business or entertainment-friendly.
I like the old station arch at the park. Has a nice european “Victory Arch” feeing for Columbus. Although I wish they would do something with the back side of it, the plain brick is a turn off viewing it from the south.
wow. i thought this was going to be high speed. finding out that it won’t be is very very dissapointing.
guess it is a cost issue, but still.
10tv.com has a live feed of Strickland’s news conference at 1 pm.
They’ll have to change the proposed schedule first. Exhibit 6 in the Service Development Plan (see page 19 of 40) shows the last train to leave Cleveland at 3:30 PM. Not exactly business or entertainment-friendly.
That is exactly what I was afraid of. Last night, I said to E that I bet the hours would make it totally useless for any thing we would want to do.
A.
OK — since this is now a done deal — the next question is: what is the breakdown of this $400M. I know mass-transit is not cheap, but where is the bulk of this going? To purchase slow-speed trains? To build elaborate train depots? To buy/lease the right-of-ways and rails well above market price from a freight rail company? Or to upgrade the rails so that they’re capable of zooming people from Columbus to Cincinnati (through Dayton) at 40mph? $400M is alot of money, and even though I support this project, let’s hope it’s being spent wisely. For example, If we’re going to have to replace the rails on these lines to make them capable of transporting commuters(I really don’t know…doubt it, actually) let’s not waste the money on an interim 40 mph solution. Hopefully anything we spend is as a building block to our ultimate goal of HIGH SPEED rail.
I don’t know if I understand it correctly or not, but I don’t like the plan for the Columbus Station at all. The Service Development Plan seems to state it isn’t going to be enclosed at all and you will be exposed to the elements. I understand a design like that in small cities, but with a big city and potential “hub” like Columbus I would of expected a better investment into the station.
@HogRoaster
I just wrote a long reply, but it didn’t post when I hit submit. Basically, check out section VII of this report beginning on page 21 of 40.
@HogRoaster -
Why are you focusing on 40MPH? That is the average speed with stops. Not the max speed. The max speed is 79MPH, which is what the existing rail is certified for without upgrades.
FYI Acela’s average speed is 70MPH w/a max of 150MPH.
@johnwirtz — thanks for the link. It answers a lot of my questions.
It does show that ~$270M of the investment will be spent on upgrading the tracks / building new tracks to get the line capable of running UP TO 79 mph in some areas, up to 49mph in others. That’s a bunch of money, but it looks like they’ve put some time into figuring out that it is a necessity. Hopefully it’s a one time cost, and that the new lines / upgraded lines are actually built to support much faster service in the future….even though the entire corridor won’t use this capacity YET. Basically, I’m saying that I really doubt this will be a success if it doesn’t EVENTUALLY speed up, so let’s not set our sights too low. AMTRAK may think that 40MPH and and $$$$ tickets are a sustainable business model….but they would be out of business if we didn’t subsidize the crap out of them.
I am focusing on the 40mph because that’s the reality of it as it stands right now. I really don’t care if the train can intermittantly go 79mph with the pedal to the metal. I can intermittantly go 110mph driving on I-71, but that doesn’t mean I can make it to downtown Cincy in under an hour. If the end result is that it takes me 4 hrs to get to Cincinnati and costs >$100 r/t to take the train, I’m going to drive. Get me there faster, on a convenient timetable, and at a somewhat more reasonable cost, and I’ll consider taking the train.
After leaving a long reply, I forgot to bring up the question: If the US Government is making all these improvements to the CSX / NS rail lines, who owns them? Is there some kind of revenue sharing agreement if CSX runs their freight trains on these upgraded lines? Does Uncle Sam have to pay a fee to Norfolk Southern for every Amtrak train that runs over their rails?