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This Week News wrote
Council: City won’t support rail-hub study
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007
By TARA STUBBS-FIGURSKI
Gahanna City Council voted 4-3 Monday night to reject a request to pass a resolution of support for an Ohio Rail Hub study.
The Ohio Rail Commission requested that Gahanna join 25 Ohio communities and organizations in supporting the federal funding of a rail environmental-impact study.
The proposed plan includes a 1,244-mile intercity/interstate passenger rail service with 44 stations. Columbus is projected to be the second major hub.
“There are still people out there wanting to push light rail,” council member Nick Hogan said. “If there really was a market for it, it would already exist.”
Council member Tom Evers said although at some point, the federal government provided land grants for the railroad, the government consistently funds highway construction with the gas tax.
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- The city of Gahanna doesn’t want to grow up
the arguments against seemed a bit shaky, to say the least.
gahanna has some serious issues.
“There are still people out there wanting to push light rail,” council member Nick Hogan said. “If there really was a market for it, it would already exist.”
Wow… What a well thought out arguement.
Wow… What a well thought out arguement.
Should the private sector also build sewers and highways? :roll:
Thats crap.
Gahana sucks. The folks at Creekside should push for it.
Without cars and highways, Gahanna would still be a small village with maybe a thousand residents or so. They oppose rail service because they have an obligation to protect their tax base and support continued suburban growth.
Not saying it’s right. Just saying.
What did this Ohio Hub Study detail? What cost did Gahanna have to pay for their part in this study? Is this study online anywhere?
I just want to know what the four were actually voting no for. It seems the funding was from a federal program. :roll:
The project info of the Ohio Hub project can be found here:
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/Ohio%20Hub/Website/ordc/index.html
There’s TONS of PDFs on their “Project” Page that gives a lot of details on all types of the studies they’ve done.
My assumption from this map is that they wanted to do some sort of study of bringing that line between Pittsburgh and Columbus through Gahanna.
Honestly, I’d have no problem with a central Ohio rail network that doesn’t connect to Gahanna. If they don’t see the benefit in connecting their city in as many ways as possible, then just work around them.
Honestly, I’d have no problem with a central Ohio rail network that doesn’t connect to Gahanna. If they don’t see the benefit in connecting their city in as many ways as possible, then just work around them.
well said, walker.
seriously, this is exactly the attitude that shows how un-informed and rigid folks are regarding this issue.
Seriously, work around them. They would probably see adjacent, connected areas flourish much more than them.
Yeah, and hopefully after the fact they’ll come around and want to be included in phase 2. :D
^^ or their city will perish as everybody in the next generation decides to up and leave for somewhere better.
Either way makes me happy.
*shrug*
The city should seriously consider using City Center as a transportation hub of some sort
Bah, I hate gahanna anyways, let them live like an island…I never have to visit it.
They want to hook into the shi shi foo foo New Albany and need to spend their extra money on ROUNDABOUTS….have you seen the new one at Morse and Johnstown? If you want to get into an accident or feel suicidal, hop in! With all of the construction distraction still going on near the roundabout it is a challenge.
I have some friends that live in the older part of Gahanna, and I’ve always enjoyed hanging out there. I think it’s got a bit more going for it downtown Hilliard or Canal Winchester. And it seems like they’re on the cusp of building more upward like Bexley and Grandview.
If only they could tie some mass transit into their long-term plans, I think they’d be set.
:D
Actually, Gahanna has a long history of transportation resistance. Have you ever looked at the 270 outerbelt map as it goes by Gahanna? That big eastern ‘dent’ happened because Gahanna’s mayor during planning refused to let Gahanna get cut in half by the outerbelt. Good move then….
But I agree that including Gahanna in a Ohio Hub plan doesn’t help matters much; I think the goal there is a fast connection between Ohio’s major cities- faster than a car trip. The more burbs that want to get hooked in, the slower the service gets.
I also think many confuse the Ohio Hub Plan with COTA’s lightrail plan, which would be highly beneficial to Gahanna, and Bexley, to take closer notice of. The last proposed line is arguably the most important, linking downtown east to North Bexley, Port Columbus, and Gahanna….
Yes, the city of Gahanna voted not to support the proposed Ohio Hub Plan. This does not mean the end of the world. I was present at the time the City Council made their vote. It was shameful, but we were unprepared to have this particular vote at this time.
The vote did catch us by surprise and we were limited in what we could do to influence this council vote. This does not mean that this resolution will not be revisited again in the future. There is an election coming up (has anyone noticed?) and at least two of those council members will be up for re-election. By then, we will have our education and advocacy focused on Gahanna in order to ensure the passage, or at least the education on the Hub Plan, of a resoultion of support.
I rolled my eyes when I heard two of them say “light-rail”. This meant that they didn’t want to hear what the plan was about or that they think rail transportation is another word for communism. Anyway, this is small potatoes and there are bigger fish to fry…potatoes and fish, it must be dinner time.
If only they could tie some mass transit into their long-term plans, I think they’d be set.
:D
Right on, right on. At least I can say many of the new planners coming out of school understand this. The politicians are the tough nuts to crack.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2008
Posted by cmhindependent at 5:44 PM
This Monday, February 25, 2008, the City of Gahanna’s City Council will once again consider passing a resolution in support of the Ohio Hub Freight and Passenger Rail development. In October 2007, the Council rejected the proposition 4-3 but due to a few new faces on the board and additional time to learn more about the hub plan the resolution stands a favorable chance at passage.
READ MORE
Well well! The passing of the political torch may have actually meant something for a change. Small time in small town, but still.
(I can’t believe they weren’t on board–no pun intended–the first time around, given the list of other communities that had already signed onto this. Not like they were committing to actually *building* anything yet.)