COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is downplaying threats by Ohio Republicans to stop the state’s passenger rail project.

LaHood says the $400 million stimulus project to connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati is an important part of a national rail program. He compared it to the development of the federal highway system, which took five decades to complete and survived numerous elections.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich   says he’ll stop the project if elected, saying the trains will be too slow and too costly to operate.

LaHood met with highway construction workers Thursday in Columbus. Without directly commenting on what he would do if Kasich is elected, LaHood said he expects to see Ohio connected to a national rail network.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/05/05-lahood-rail.html?sid=101

Letter to the editor: I-70/71 redesign cost shows value of rail

CLEVE RICKSECKER
Executive director
Discovery Special Improvement District
Columbus
 
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2010/07/26/i-7071-redesign-cost-shows-value-of-rail.html?sid=101

After rush to start 3C rail, project slows
Study hasn’t started; funding hasn’t arrived

By James Nash
Some 10 weeks after lawmakers approved a $25 million study of passenger rail service linking Ohio’s largest cities, the state has yet to ink a contract with the firm picked to do the study, raising fresh questions about the 2011 goal for getting the trains running.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/07/03/copy/afterrushto-start-3c-rail-projectslows.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

Wouldn’t be the first time.

Of course taxpayers will get stuck with the bill because it will need massive subsidies just like Amtrak needs in order to stay afloat.

Ken Prendergast: Trains are a better deal than highways

It’s unfortunate to see fiscal conservatives resort to a double standard in claiming to protect Ohio’s taxpayers from the imminent doom of the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati (3C) passenger-rail project.
The hyperbolic Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, even said he feared the 3C trains’ $17 million annual operating cost would grow into “the biggest money pit in state history.” Perhaps he forgot that the immensely larger, debt-ridden and justifiably celebrated Ohio canal system threatened to be just that to our state as a fledgling.
 
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2010/04/17/trains-are-a-better-deal-than-highways.html?sid=101

State taking risk by asking for rail study
Vote could affect support for future expenditures

By James Nash

Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration will risk political defeat next week when it asks skeptical lawmakers to approve a $25 million study of passenger rail service linking Ohio’s major cities, the state transportation director said yesterday.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/16/copy/state-taking-risk-by-asking-for-rail-study.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

Strickland wants OK of rail study

By James Nash

Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration is asking legislators to approve spending $25 million in federal money on a detailed study of passenger rail service even though the overall project faces uncertain prospects when it comes to a final vote.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/10/copy/strickland-wants-ok-of-rail-study.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

By any count, 3C to be costly
Annual rail subsidy put at $13 million or $28 million

Sunday,  April 4, 2010 2:59 AM

By James Nash

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

This much is beyond dispute: Tickets alone will cover less than half the cost of running trains among Ohio’s major cities, so taxpayers will be on the hook for millions of dollars in subsidies each year.

more

Rail advocate raps Republicans as thwarting progress

Associated Press

The man who put together a master plan for high-speed rail in Ohio says Republican critics threatening to kill a new train service are squandering a chance to position the state for the 21st century.

Read more:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/01/rail-advocate-republicans.html

By James Nash

Ohio’s transportation chief pushed back yesterday against critics of the state’s plan to link major cities by passenger trains, saying the service would prove useful to thousands of Ohioans and help attract young professionals to major cities.

Read more:

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/04/copy/official-rail-plan-will-make-ohio-greener.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/02/ohio_is_on_track_to_waste_a_bu.html

Ohioans wonder whether new rail line will be too slow, underutilized

By Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer

Seventy-nine mph is not high speed.

Yet that’s the fastest that passenger trains between Cleveland and Cincinnati will go when they start running, possibly as soon as 2012. This puzzles and disappoints some Ohioans, especially because President Barack Obama announced new rail lines on Jan. 28 as cogs in a national “high speed” network.
 
Read more:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/02/ohioans_wonder_whether_new_rai.html