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This Week News wrote
Council approves resolution of support for rail-hub study
Thursday, March 6, 2008
TARA STUBBS-FIGURSKI
In its second attempt in less than seven months, the Ohio Rail Development Commission this time was successful in getting Gahanna City Council to support an Ohio Rail Hub study.
Council member Tom Evers said he approved the original legislation and that his reasons for doing so still apply: dwindling oil reserves and increased gas prices. “Look at how many cars and trucks are on the road,” he said. “There are only so many lanes on (Interstate) 270.”
The Ohio Rail Hub plan includes a 1,244-mile intercity/interstate passenger rail service with 44 stations.
Related Stories:
- The city of Gahanna won’t support rail-hub study
- Strickland wants 3-C Passenger Rail Restored
- Passenger Trains – Considered Again Today
A little bit of education can go a long way.
Being an eyewitness at the time, we nearly had Councilman McAlister too. After 6 straight pronouncements of ‘yes’ on the resolution, Councilman McAlister started to say ‘yes’ but quickly changed it to ‘no’ after he nearly fell to peer-pressure.
Did he explain his no vote?
Though I find this to be great news, there seems to be a lot of talk about the various rail/streetcar plans. Yet no plan has materialized.
It’s explained in the link. It sounds like he’s just grandstanding a bit to make the point that Ohio shouldn’t be operating with such a deficit. Good point actually…it’s just that this is one of those projects that falls into the category of, “you’ve got to spend money to make money.”
Sounds like Coucilman Evers deserves a few letters of praise. People are starting to get it. Exciting times!
Now here’s hoping for $4 and $5 gas so we can snap some more people out of their comas! :D
Roads have it easy…rails not so much.
Write that message to your elected state and local representatives. It takes a lot of momentum to get these projects built. Every little bit helps.
Oh, there are plenty of plans. What’s lacking is funding, specifically federal dollars we sent to DC being returned to us for this crucial economic development need. As others have pointed out, roads are viewed by many as free whereas transit costs money. State and federal gas taxes cannot be used for non-road uses, for instance, a bass-ackwards policy that leads to paving the planet yet never relieving congestion or moving people around efficiently.
To expand on your point, roads are viewed as free and having the liberty to drive on the roads are considered the ultimate freedom. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t confess that I must own a car. BUT, I also realize that I have made many decisions through life based on this need of driving. I realize now that many of the policies have made the choice of driving the only option and by doing so have shaped the design of our Country (not necessarily all bad) to the point where people find alternative transit choices an attack on their freedom.