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Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote
Cleveland-Cincinnati passenger rail service plan gets boost from Congress
December 04, 2008
Karen Farkas
Passenger rail service from Cleveland to Cincinnati could be a reality by 2010 if the state gets $100 million in proposed infrastructure stimulus money. The Ohio Rail Development Commission also intends to apply next year for federal matching grants from a passenger rail bill passed by Congress this fall.
“I’m cautiously ecstatic,” said Stu Nicholson, spokesman for the commission, who envisions two trains making a round trip each day. “The money is the game changer. It changed the whole dynamic.”
The commission, an independent agency within the Ohio Department of Transportation, has long advocated the 3-C Corridor between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. It also advocates the more ambitious and expensive Ohio Hub, a high-speed rail system on seven corridors in the state. Some $200 million is being sought to design and plan the high-speed network.
“The Amtrak planning staff told us that the corridor is probably the best underdeveloped passenger rail corridor in the U.S.,” Nicholson said.
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- Passenger Rail Act passes US House
^^^ Crossing over from the Young Professionals thread, this right here would be huge in convincing me to stay in Columbus.
I’m am so excited for this ! This will bring Ohio out of the “why are you in ohio?” relm to “we need to visit you in ohio” relm / We just had an associate partner come to columbus for the first time from New Jersey ( he lived in Cleveland for a while but moved in his 20s, has some family that lives here ,who loves it, but has never come to see them here.) As he got to know me he wondered why I was still in Ohio suggesting the east coast was more for me. He was also shocked that we had most of the same ammenites that they have on the EC . He is an awsome guy but just didn’t think very much of Columubus. (he stay was short but the next time he comes back i will show him some more things like gallery hop!)
This is very encouraging news. If this is up and running by 2010 I hope that having a localized passenger rail system to shuttle people around Downtown/ShortNorth/OSU will follow soon after. ;)
I’ve always figured it would take a regional system before we got close to the local.
The big question(s): Where will the station be in Columbus? I’ve seen a few ideas thrown out? Do the Ohio Hub people have their own ideas? And will this hasten the return of Amtrak?
ETA
High and Front is the option they are looking at, according to the online documents.
awesome news! I wonder how many in between stops there will be? If I could get to my hometown via train, I think I could go ahead and get rid of my car, as that’s pretty much the only place I use it to get to now.
Google Ohio Hub and head to their webpage to see their proposals. If anything, maybe this will encourage some of the cities around OH, or at least regional areas to partner, to consider have some kind of basic circulator from their 3-C platform around town.
I didn’t realize those two streets intersected.
I didn’t realize those two streets intersected.
Yeah, I didn’t either. But that is how I read it on their proposal.
ETA
So it’s probably going to be the Arena District spot near the new Giant Eagle or the Convention Center?
http://www2.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/Ohio%20Hub/Website/ordc/maps.html
There are several potential sites between High St (at Nationwide) going West toward where Neil Avenue crosses under the tracks. The Marconi St. pedestrian crossing area is also a possibility.
The key site element is going to be having enough room to bring passenger trains off of the main lines of either the NS or CSX railroads, so as not to block freight traffic. Adequate are for parking and proximity to other modes (buses, taxis, bikes and ….someday…light rail and streetcars.
Is that central line Cleve->Columbus->Dayton->Ciny the same line as this is talking about? I guess that would make sense. In that case I probably wouldn’t have much use for the train.. I’d still love to see it happen though.
Depends on where you are trying to get off. The entire system, which will include connections for Columbus out through Indiana and up to Chicago, along with PA, covers a pretty decent area of our state.
It may work out down the line for you to take the rail line to a city within a 1/2 hour of your desired destination, easy for someone to meet up with you. I can also see some smart minded entrepreneurs buying a couple coach buses or old transit buses and providing service to regional destinations from the various stops.
They are doing it in phases and more stops will be added but the high traffic areas will get the first stations. the three C corridor. If you live in south east ohio no you won’t see a stop any where near your hometown.
I ‘m super excited about this . The economic impacts was my favorite thing to read.! Jobs will come back. ,maybe even some fortune 500s will decide to relocte here. we are in the middle of it ALL!
+1 This is my feeling exactly.
Actually, we’re “in the heart of it all”. :)
The initial service will be in the 3-C Corridor, but it will set the table for not only expanded service, but (eventually) for the 110 mph service planned for in the Ohio Hub Plan.
What strikes me so well is that we finally have a Governor who not only “gets” rail, but embraces it. He could have just gone for a minimal amount of those federal $$$, but instead went for over $200-million to not only get service underway, but advance the environmental reviews to move us toward more and better trains.
I’m so weary of this talk of passenger rail linking the 3 C’s. I’ve heard it many times before. I hope this time it really happens, although they should step it up to a true high speed rail system with limited stops.
I agree that there have been a lot of false starts, but I think this one is more promising. There is more momentum behind passenger rail expansion now than an any time I can remember in my admittedly young adult life; on this issue at least, the winds of change do legitimately appear to be blowing (and I think that means something coming from me, since I’m usually one of the people who has to be disillusioning others about the staying power of the status quo).
I’m not saying that the entire OhioHub plan looks like it’s just over the horizon, or that the 3-C corridor is a done deal, but it does look like at least some new infrastructure spending is going to materialize and that Ohio’s cities are in good shape to get a good portion of it because of the relative sizes and distances of our cities from one another. We pack a lot of large- and medium-sized population centers into spaces that are almost ideal for rail.
Also because we have a well researched plan already in the development pipeline that is ready to ‘fund and go’. Having that groundwork done is a huge help in landing any upcoming federal funding that is made available.
Having recently completed another cross-country trip from the beautiful station in Cinci to DC, I am very excited about this. It’s a great way to travel.
from the “If they can do it so can we” department:
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2008/12/07/China_completing_high-speed_rail_line/UPI-18731228674706/
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2008/12/07/China_completing_high-speed_rail_line/UPI-18731228674706/
Just wait for the naysayers to come along and find something that can go wrong…