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The Dispatch wrote
Strickland wants 3-C passenger rail restored
Thursday, March 6, 2008
COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland says the nation’s passenger rail operator should take a look at restoring lines to Ohio cities that have been without them for decades.
Strickland asks Amtrak in a letter to evaluate how practical it would be to restore passenger rail to the line connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, with stops in some of the other cities along the route.
According to an announcement today, the governor wants Amtrak to work with the Ohio Rail Development Commission on the study. He says adding passenger service would help Ohio’s cities create jobs and attract business.
READ MORE | Full Press Release
I have got train fever real bad and there’s only one thing for it :D
W00t! W00t!
Regardless of margin, they’ve stuck around longer than several of the airline bailouts…and provided a helluva lot more energy friendly service while they have.
W00t! W00t!
Cowcatchers?
They should build the station in Franklinton. Franklinton is basically as close to downtown as CSCC or other offical downtown places. Franklinton has plenty of rail traffic already, and plenty of space and junk buildings. There once was a station in Franklinton actually its still standing.
Plus something like that could really give Franklinton a boost. Light rail connecting to airport
Walker, your site proposal looks a little small. The train in the image can only fit five cars in. If you look a at stations, they need lots of staging tracks, workshops, garages, and lots of linear room. That exists in Franklinton.
Franklinton was exactly what I was thinking. What’s Vet’s being used for anyway>?
Yea that’s right. And the roads and highways we build (and have to maintain) are big money makers. In fact they are laid down by free Care Bear labor. When there are traffic jams if you look closely you will see magical unicorns. They give you free chocolate.
:roll:
:lol: Sorry, but I ended up driving a car today and so I’m in an especially anti-car mood.
I actually like the Franklinton idea. What about the Cooper stadium site??
I was thinking here:
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or just to the north
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or here:
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Cincinnati’s Union Terminal
Sweetness! That is very good to know! We need to find others like us!
In regards to the station location, I remember reading on a website about a transit proposal for Columbus that included rail stations at OH 161 in the Linworth area and one downtown over the river near Long Street. Does anyone remember this???
ODOT is so stupid. I hope that 70/71 split never happens. How many buildings will be torn down?
That ET Paul tire place and even Carabar… maybe Black Creek and AWOL? Basically, it’ll destroy much of the cool part of Parsons and any chance of its expansion. As if they didn’t wipe out enough when they built the split. People in or near the neighborhood will have to go elsewhere for late night options. Yet another reason to stop the insanity. Don’t want to be one of the three accidents that takes place there daily? Then avoid it. I just saved us a billion dollars.
Walker’s proposal should have space for a station underneath the roads. Plus, it drops people off right in the middle of things, and directly on the proposed streetcar line.
All you need is a station, the rest of the space you’re talking about can be located elsewhere. No need to have a workshops and garages co-located with the station.
Beleive it or not, I am another one. There are actually quite a few. The challange is to show people who don’t know what rail service is and what it can do that it is a sound investment by public sources.
And the billions lost in yearly highway and airport support? Yeah, anti-rail forces really don’t use that argument anymore.
Walker’s proposal should have space for a station underneath the roads. Plus, it drops people off right in the middle of things, and directly on the proposed streetcar line.
All you need is a station, the rest of the space you’re talking about can be located elsewhere. No need to have a workshops and garages co-located with the station.
And in fact, it would make little sense to have them in the same place. A full-service railyard takes up a tremendous amount of space and offers the potential to bring a lot of decent blue-collar jobs to an outlying area somewhere where land is cheaper and blue-collar jobs are in demand. (Google Map the I-270W/I-70 interchange sometime and just look at how much space the railyard there takes up.) In Canton, when this place was a major industrial center and the railroads through town were humming all the time, the actual service center was located in a tiny town called Brewster (even tinier now that the railyard is gone …) a ways outside of town.
And the billions lost in yearly highway and airport support? Yeah, anti-rail forces really don’t use that argument anymore.
Just to add a little more substance to bremkat’s argument…here’s Bush’s proposed 2008 budgets for these transit organizations…
Federal Highway Administration = $37.2 billion
Federal Aviation Adiminstration = $12.1 billion
Amtrak = $0.8 billion
Somehow they still are managing to bring in record ridership year after year. It’s a wonder.
Regarding the placement of the station in Columbus there was a design competition last summer which used the placement that Walker originally suggested in this thread. It’s a lot bigger than you’d think if you remember that High St is elevated there and there is plenty of room to the east of High St as well. This would get the Street Car line directly involved, connect the convention center, etc. etc. The website for the design competition no longer exists but the competition name was Columbus Re-Wired so you might still be able to find the designs. For some time they were being shown at the Knowlton School of Architecture. MORPC and AIA Columbus were the primary sponsors so they may be the ones holding onto the final designs. Check it out!
From http://www.UrbanOhio.com forums:
Here’s a graphic I produced for the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers (today’s All Aboard Ohio) in 2004……
Beleive it or not, I am another one. There are actually quite a few. The challange is to show people who don’t know what rail service is and what it can do that it is a sound investment by public sources.
I hope alternative transit options never gets tagged as a Republican/Democratic party platform. Rather, I hope it continues to grow as a National platform.
I have been going to rail meetings and planning sessions for the 3 C railway (Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati) and light rail in Columbus ( the most common routes worked up were Crosswoods to Downtown and Downtown to the airport) since 1998. The ideas are there. Most of the logistics have been worked out. What is needed in the money and the will to do so. One problem is the lack of leadership at the State Government level on this need.
This is not a political issue in any way – however, the changing of the guard – from Republican to Democrat and vice versa that occurs whenever there is a change in which party “owns” the governor’s office, prevents any initiative that takes more than 4 years to complete. When there is a change in power – cronyship means a switch in leadership in key government managment positions so no big ideas get completed.
Rail makes sense – it is good for the Ohio economy and good for day to day life as well.
It is so frustrating to see good plans stall – year after year. And many people have not been informed well enough to be able to support these good ideas.
(And don’t get me started on other good projects like wind farms, etc.). I would love to see Columbus become America’s Green City and Ohio become the Green state by looking at long term benefits instead of short term costs.
My rant for the year…..back to food.