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The Toldeo Blade wrote
Will Toledo be next stop in U.S. light-rail boom?
Sunday, May 27, 2007
By DAVID PATCH
During the last 10 years a transit renaissance has blossomed in many parts of the country. According to the American Public Transportation Association, public transit use has risen 30 percent since 1995, more than double the U.S. population’s 12 percent growth and higher than the 24 percent increase in vehicular travel during that period.
In 2006, the association said, 10.1 billion passengers boarded local public transportation, the first time that number topped 10 billion in 49 years.
A significant part of that growth has involved light rail, a transit category covering modern streetcars, trolleys, and “heritage” trolleys.
Is a new light-rail system possible in Toledo?
“It’s all possible, it’s not impossible, but it’s not a matter of just slapping down track, it’s a matter of planning,” said James Seney, a former Sylvania mayor and former director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission.
I was born and raised in Northwest Ohio (Williams County) and my family would always go shopping in Toledo or Fort Wayne. I went to college at BGSU and often went to Toledo. Blink your eyes on the freeway, miss your next exit and next thing you know you are in Michigan. That town is no where big enough for it or willing to support it. As witnessed the quick decline of their attempt to revitalize their downtown by a name I don’t even remember anymore, it was such a dismal failure.
man, how sad would that be.
By John Krudy
Government officials in Ohio and Toledo are planning an Ohio Hub of high-speed trains that could link Toledo to Detroit, Cleveland and national rail networks.
“The whole idea is to get the plan ready to the point that the minute federal funds become available, we can say, ‘fund me,’” said Transportation Project Manager Diane Reamer-Evans of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG). “I think we’d be in a position to compete.”
The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) has been working with city and county officials across the state for six years to develop the Ohio Hub system. The plan would upgrade existing rail networks to run high-speed passenger trains capable of reaching 110 mph. Right now, trains in Ohio are limited to 79 mph.
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I was up in Toledo on business a few years ago.. It was like a ghost town, and I was there in late June. It was pretty sad. They have a beautiful compact downtown with lots of original buildings, great river front development and a number of decent restaurants. The problem is, no people..
Things are very economically depressed there.
DT Toledo is pretty weak though the new ballpark and arena should help that. The center of gravity in the area is basically in West Toledo from the University west toward I-475. The red line on the map is essentially in that area.
The difference is that Toledo is already on a primary passenger rail corridor so it can provide a full array of rail connections in a way Cbus can only hope for.