COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rail advocacy group All Aboard Ohio has begun a public information campaign calling for a series of multi-frequency passenger rail routes throughout the state, plus additional round-trips over existing Amtrak routes between Cincinnati and Chicago as well as Cleveland to Detroit and New York via both Pittsburgh and Buffalo.
Although some Ohio news outlets picked up social media posts implying that Amtrak is behind the proposals, the passenger railroad declined to acknowledge specifics regarding the All Aboard Ohio plans in an email to Trains News Wire.
“We are working with our state partners, local officials and other stakeholders to understand their interests in new and improved Amtrak service and will be releasing that plan soon,” says the statement, adding, “We will call on Congress to authorize and fund Amtrak’s expansion in such corridors by allowing us to cover most of the initial capital and operating costs of new or expanded routes.”
Under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, states must contribute start-up capital costs and ongoing incremental operating costs, as determined by Amtrak, for routes under 750 miles. Since the legislation was enacted in 2008, states have added service but no new routes.
Ohio was on track to launch a new route on Sept. 15, 2009, when Amtrak issued a “Feasibility Report on Proposed Amtrak service: Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. The document showed infrastructure improvements, track connections, possible station locations, and a proposed schedule of six daily trains between the cities. Backed by extensive community outreach and $400 million in a federal economic stimulus grant through the Ohio Rail Development Commission, the project died when Republican John Kasich Jr., defeated Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland in the 2010 election. Kasich turned back the federal funding and indicated there should be no further study of passenger rail projects.
However, All Aboard Ohio Executive Director Stu Nicholson tells Trains News Wire, “Ohio’s current governor, Republican Mike DeWine, has asked the Ohio Department of Transportation to put passenger rail ‘back on the radar,’ so there has been more willingness on the part of the executive branch to consider and allow such projects once more.
“We are now preparing to approach the governor and legislative leaders about putting a small appropriation into the upcoming ODOT biennial budget to get some official state-level planning to make passenger rail possible in five corridors.”
Nicholson applauds Amtrak’s proposal to initially cover capital and start-up costs, “which would gradually turn over operation costs into the sixth year. This is a change that our state governments will likely find more attractive, especially given the financial stress that many states are under right now.”
Ken Prendergast, All Aboard Ohio’s public affairs director, characterizes the five corridor proposals as “more of an outline or goal than a plan. But the fact that Amtrak has gone from a reactive organization to a proactive one is very significant. Amtrak would never initiate new services in the past. For them to offer it now, with a pledge of 100% non-state funding [assuming a federal authorization passes] is exactly what a rail-inexperienced state like Ohio needs.”
