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Press Release:
All Aboard Ohio is calling on Ohio’s Congressional Delegation to support a list of “Shovel Ready” federal stimulus projects identified last week by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. In that list was $30.25 billion worth of highway and bridge projects, $12 billion for transit and nearly $5 billion for passenger rail.
This week the House Appropriations Committee kept the funding levels intact for highways, but reduced transit to $8.9 billion and eviscerated passenger rail funding to just $1.1 billion.
“There are some really great stimulus projects in Ohio that could begin to create the kind of interconnected transportation system that is needed to reduce our travel costs, boost development in our historic cities and towns, increase our energy efficiency, reduce our carbon emissions and compete better with the rest of the world,” said All Aboard Ohio Interim Executive Director Ken Prendergast. “That is the kind of change we can believe in. I hope Congress does too.”
A stimulus project list appears at the bottom of this press statement. Note that some of the projects are actually for federally required planning and environmental review so that those rail projects can become “shovel ready” for a long-term federal stimulus.
“Unfortunately, it seems that repeated utterances of ‘Roads-n-Bridges’ have become a programmed response as the best way to boost jobs,” Prendergast added. “It’s not. Our nation became overdependent on driving during the 100 years when America was the world’s biggest producer of oil. Now we are as dependent on imported oil as Europe, Japan and China. But while those nations are rebuilding their economies around trains and transit as well as walkable town centers, America is in danger of driving itself into an economic and environmental dead end.”
China is spending $88 billion on rail projects this year. European countries are shifting their infrastructure budgets from a dominance of “Roads-n-Bridges” to being in balance with “Trains and Transit.” India will invest $30 billion on rail in 2009. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Vietnam, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey and other nations are or will soon invest billions to build high-speed rail. Meanwhile America plans to spend more for short-lived benefits and less to invest in Trains and Transit that will transform a resource-constrained America for the coming century and beyond.
“We ask everyone in Ohio to please contact their Congressperson today,” Prendergast said. “America can do what is easy or it can do what is best for its economy over the long term. Either way, decisions made in Congress in the next few weeks will likely set a direction for this nation that will last for decades.”
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Here’s a partial list of Ohio “Trains and Transit” projects, submitted for federal stimulus program funding:
+ North Corridor Light Rail construction within Franklin County: $200 million; requested by the City of Columbus.
+ Downtown Streetcar system: up to $185 million; requested by the City of Cincinnati.
+ Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati (3-C) Corridor intercity passenger rail service (Phase One): $100 million; requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the City of Cleveland.
+ Ohio Hub System passenger rail preliminary engineering and environmental impact studies: $100 million; requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the City of Cleveland.
+ Rehabilitation of Rapid Transit rail stations, tracks, bridges, electrical substations, and construction of a new East Side Transit Center near CSU: $62.9 million; requested by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and portions requested by the City of Cleveland.
+ Extend Euclid Corridor-type bus rapid transit service along Buckeye Road, East 55th Street and Clifton Boulevard: $50 million; requested by the City of Cleveland.
+ Ohio Hub – Tier One Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement: $15 million; requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation.
+ Phase II Lorain County Transportation Center (LCT/Greyhound bus, Amtrak trains), City of Elyria: $3.2 million; requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Lorain County Commissioners.
+ Future Phase of Amtrak Planning and Engineering Design: $2.5 million; requested by the Ohio Department of Transportation.
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All Aboard Ohio suggested this tool to contact your representative….
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RsdM6K6%2FtuyqEKO5JthM%2FDneT4fSggML
GREAT tool, saved me a ton of time, thanks for the post!
I have to agree with the Appropriations Committee; most passenger rail projects proposed are doomed to failure. My wife and I were planning a trip to New York City and looked at plane, bus, train and car. Discounting the fact that we would need to drive to Cleveland to catch the train, it was still by far the longest duration and highest cost option of the four. An ORDC presentation I saw recently painted a picture I saw as just as bad for rail travel between Ohio cities. The vast majority of people are not going to use a service that makes their trip longer and more costly compared to simply driving.
Why do you think we need to improve passenger rail? Precisely because of your experience. But I would dispute that people will not use passenger trains, even in their current state. How do you explain that Amtrak has set ridership records (by wide margins BTW) for six years running?
But they not only want to ride trains, they want more and better trains. You and your wife shouldn’t have to drive to Cleveland to catch a good train. If you dig deeper into what ORDC is doing, you will see it is working to improve that situation. That’s why Congress needs to hear from you.
Part of the reason Amtrak is like that is exactly because of moves like this. Stripping funding for rail travel, bailing out the airlines repeatedly and placing our eggs in one basket has helped lead to the poor image Amtrak has had.
Look at how poor COTA’s image was when their funding was stripped down. With the passed levy, things are looking up, service is improving and travel times on some routes are coming down.
Also, I don’t think anyone is trying to make rail a viable option for travel to New York or Boston or LA. It’s a more practical choice for destinations closer to us (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago.) Of course, you can get to New York from Cleveland on Amtrak, but flying is cheaper and quicker.
Cheaper? Round trip fare on the Lake Shore Limited from Cleveland to NYC is about $125. Faster? On long-distances, yes.
But also consider the hassles of driving to and from airports, having to arrive two hours early for those wonderful TSA checks, sitting in a plane on the runway waiting to take off or in the air waiting to land (depending on the time you fly… and all the while crammed in a too-small seat, buckled in and nowhere to go.
Taking the train isn’t always about time, however. It’s about how you can spend that time…. reading, working on a laptop, talking on the cell phone, or just watching the country go by at eye-level…and being able to get up and walk around, meet people, grab coffee or a meal… and arriving in downtown NYC in the heart of where you need to be.
But unfortunately, we are being denied access to more and better options because of a highways-only mentality in our Congress and Statehouse. That is clearly evident in the U.S. House appropriation recommendation.
I agree that people would be more likely to use passenger rail for shorter distances. Flying from Columbus to Cleveland or Cincinnati is not viable, so you can really only compare it to a drive. The travel time could be longer on the train (depending on weather, time of year, etc) but the hassle of not driving would make it worthwhile for me. And while buying a tank of gas for the trip might be cheaper up front, the overall cost of operating your vehicle at 50 cents per mile makes the price of a train ticket that much more attractive.