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Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman attended a news conference this morning in Virgina along with several other mayors and governors to hear President-Elect Barack Obama’s proposed stimulus plan to boost the nation’s economy.
Coleman has recently written a letter to Obama seeking federal funding dollars for a variety of economic development projects in Central Ohio, including:
- $32 million for development in RiverSouth
- $26 million in Targeted Industry Cluster Job Creation
- $63.9 million in LEED Certified Infrastructure Development
- $12.6 million in Carbon Footprint Reduction
and………
- $200 million for the development of a new Regional Rail Project
The brief overview of the new regional rail project describes it as a combination of the “best elements” from both the previous North Corridor Light Rail Proposal and the more recent Downtown Streetcar Proposal. The new passenger rail system is being proposed to run northward from Downtown to the Delaware County Line with a combination of on-street rail grades and right-of-way railroad tracks.
The city has already partnered with MORPC and COTA on the preliminary work for this project, and it is being called the new “first step” towards a more comprehensive regional passenger rail network.
More details will be posted as soon as we get them. Stay tuned.
You don’t think there’s naysayers for rail expansion in cities that have rail?
Does that mean that once Columbus has one rail line built, suddenly 100% of the general public will support new line expansion?
In related news: I heard a rumor that Portland has a permanent rainbow in the sky! It’s THAT magical!
Nah, but I DO believe, once a rail is up and running in Columbus, you’d get about as much resistance to expansions as you do to COTA expansions…maybe marginally more, but you get my drift.
In related news, I see there’s a comment on NBC4i.com from the same guy who posts on every Dispatch article, stating that he’d have welcomed this 30 or even 10 years ago, but it’s useless now…because he’s retired.
wow, just wow.
Walker, I don’t care so much about the individuals. A healthy amount of criticism and skepticism for government projects is always great. It would be nice if the Dispatch and others didn’t sensationalize everything. I’d have to go back on some of the [Insert City] is getting a streetcar threads, but I’m almost positive there were examples of other media sources in other cities presenting such projects with much more balance. Not putting up a misleading poll to skew public opinion.
Don’t read NBC4, I saw that comment and others which have no thought put in them at all. I guess not voting on and just dumping untold millions into expanding our highway system (the one that kills over 40,000 people annually) is just fine. Is some basic logic too much to ask for?
This is where it’s important to acknowledge the very real difference, especially culturally, within not just the traditional urban center, but the rest of the “city”, where that term only applies legalistically by the city itself so that it gains revenue and owns a bunch more land. Someone living in the city (Downtown, Short North, etc) is going to have a glaringly different opinion of rail and mass transit in general when compared to someone that lives in the “city”/sprawl (NW of Henderson, NE of Morse etc).
One thing that makes me think the funding won’t come, after reading the all the articles more thoroughly, is that the stimulus plan is supposed to be focused on projects that are “shovel ready.” This plan doesn’t even seem to know what kind of trains it will be using so i find it hard to believe that it is even close to being ready. I would venture to guess there are many other projects around the country that could be implemented faster then we will probably even get the planning done.
Heh. Those “Streetcar News” threads probably aren’t your best source for finding negativity. I did encounter some stories that were very negative, and usually posted the more balanced and/or positive ones.
I agree with Core that implementing the second rail line in Columbus will be easier than the first. But opposition exists everywhere. Just saying that this is nothing unique to Columbus.
The reason this light rail plan IS shovel ready is that all of the environmental stuy work has been done and that means engineering and construction can get underway. The DEIS (Detailed Environmental Impact Statement) work was done back in 2003 and earned COTA a “go” from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The “go” was rescinded by the FTA (remember, this is under the transit-unfriendly Bush Administration) because they changed the ground rule for what could be considered for so-called “new starts” projects.
Among the things that could no longer be considered were estimates of riders who would be “new to transit”. So, estimates of ridership growth were no longer considered valid… unbelieveable, but true. That’s one reason why COTA CEO Lhota backburnered the light rail plan when he came on board. The standards had been raised so high by the FTA that almost no transit system could qualify.
Fast-forward to today. The original DEIS is still valid and only needs to be updated. My guess is that the FTA under the Obama administration will relax some of the BS rule changes and that will allow more projects to getr underway.
This is a very “shovel ready” project.
shovel ready not” put the cars on the track ready” There are certain steps that have to be taken before other steps . Buying the car for the track wouldnt have to come as soon as the project started< My guess it would be a long lead item so ordering the cars would come soon after( months in this case) the project started. However i think they want to use old trains not brand new ones .so they would take less time and cost less as well.
I think new cars would be a better selling point because then we could claim that this project could benefit than manufacturing sector. by building these cars.
O did anyone hear that Obama will be taking a train back to washington before the inauguration. He is for mass transit!@@@@!!!@@
From The Lantern:
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I’ll be interested to hear the student take on it. Speaking of OSU, I wonder if the monetary offer they made in support of the streetcars will still stand with the new light rail project?
I’d have to guess the University will still make some sort of financial commitment to this, even if it’s more for operational costs instead of construction costs, so that the students end up with a free ride on the train (which I think is great, btw).
Don’t ever let people tell you college kids are “poor”, between disposable income and average credit card balances for students, these kids spend money. Providing a better way for them to do that, at a wider variety of places, is definitely in the city’s best interest.
It would be a godsend for commuting. Instead of driving all the way to campus, finding a parking spot, getting on the bus for 15 minutes and then walking to my class. I could park in say Worthington and then walk straight to class and on days like today and yesterday, I wouldn’t fear so much for my life trying to get out of the way from crazy assholes that think its ok to pass you at 60 when the roads are covered with snow.
I’m still trying to figure out how the trains will go down 18th ave. I guess they will have to widen the street as it is one way with parking on both sides and barely enough room for one car to travel between N. 4th and Summit. Still not sure what route it will take from Summit to High as there is no direct route and no real feasible route to High St. Seems the project really isn’t shovel ready as no community outreach and discussions with the University Area commission among other, have been undertaken.
I believe “Shovel Ready” is defined as “into construction within 2 years”.
I’m not sure of the exact path it will take between High & the existing rail either. I don’t think anyone can give us that answer at the moment, but I don’t think it necessarily means any roadways need to be widened as the rail can share lanes with cars. Converted to two-way perhaps, or some on-street parking removed, but I doubt widened significantly.
If I had to make a wild guess, I’d say maybe they current concept is to re-open 16th at High and turn the corner there and run E to Indianola and NE on 17th from there to Summit and on 18th from there to the tracks. But really who knows. I think a few different routes were studied with the North Corridor, but with so little of that information online, I’m not able to find links to what they were thinking about doing a few years ago with it.
I think the Other Paper gets the nod for best graphic in the current round of media features on the rail proposal.
I think what a lot are missing is the big picture that we need the federal funds first before we get to the “Where”, “What” and “How”. I have a lot of questions, but I’ll wait and see if we get the $$$ first. COTA doesn’t even have full time staff on this yet, until that funding comes through.
“I think what a lot are missing is the big picture that we need the federal funds first before we get to the “Whereâ€Â, “What†and “Howâ€Â. I have a lot of questions, but I’ll wait and see if we get the $$$ first. COTA doesn’t even have full time staff on this yet, until that funding comes through.”
I guess, from what some other posters said earlier, that the governments definition of shovel ready, and mine are quite different. I assumed that the stimulus money was suppose to fund projects that already had all the details, aka: “Where,” “What,” and “How” already planned. I realize that much of some types of planning have already been done for this project, but doesn’t that change considering they want to use a different train, and therefor i would guess different tracks and whatnot. I really do hope we get the money, but i would have to think that there would be other projects that could be started on almost immediately, not in 2 years or so.
I think in the grand scheme of things, 2 years and immediately are roughly the same when looking at how long major infrastructure takes.
I would assume that the basic questions have been answered if they are feeling confidant enough to ask for federal funding. Seems like they have a line on the type of system they are planning-for now a hybrid light rail. Seems like they have the basic route figured out and the details will be hammered out when they can devote full time staff and consideration to this. I kind of see this as a couple coming up with the “what if” for a home remodel plan-enough thought to get a rough idea and cost figure, but not putting all the time deciding on light switch covers and paint until you know for sure.
I will say that my biggest concern is that one that seems to be coming up here quite a bit: the transition from separate grade rail to on street. I have my doubts on how effective that would be and question how it’s going to work out when completed.
(BTW, I was speaking in generalities about the we. I like the comments on CU about this. A lot more level headed, even from the skeptics and opposed. I just see the press et al pressing for details when it’s really just a non-story at the moment and speculation until we actually get that first round of funding.)
From Columbus Local News:
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Teter had an interesting article in The Other Paper, while I didn’t agree with much of it, was still an interesting take.
http://theotherpaper.com/articles/2009/01/16/cover_story/doc496f3f2b05393944590324.txt