1 hour ago, mrnyc said:

that reminds me, i wanted to ask why can't the 3Cs+D train route go down to akron-canton before heading over to columbus and dayton? why does it have to follow I-71 down nowheresville to columbus? i assume there is a reason here why dayton gets amtrak, but akron-canton does not? is it they can't imagine swinging a train route around the cuyahoga valley for some reason, maybe?

 

Most of the mainline railroads that were engineered for higher speeds were built before Akron saw its biggest population increase coinciding with the rubber tire and the growth of the auto industry and driving. The only mainlines built through Akron were east-west (Baltimore & Ohio's Chicago-Washington mainline and the Erie Railroad's Chicago-Hoboken, NJ mainline now mostly gone). There was a secondary line called the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railroad that was absorbed into the Pennsylvania RR that branched off from the Cleveland-Pittsburgh mainline at Hudson, OH. But nearly all of that line has been gone for decades.

 

Ditto for Canton. It's only mainline was the Chicago-New York City Pennsylvania Railroad, an east-west line. Just dink rail lines going north-south that weren't built for high-volume, high-speed operations.

 

Dayton was historically on the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati mainline that was designed for 80+ mph operations and remains so today. The only other rail line between Cincinnati and Columbus is only 10 miles shorter than the route via Dayton and wasn't a mainline railroad. It also doesn't pass through any population centers.

 

So routing trains via Akron would add an hour to the Cleveland-Columbus trip and result in more riders lost from Cleveland than gained from Akron. Similarly, routing via Dayton is actually faster than via Wilmington and Washington Court House, plus you get the added benefit of serving a metro area with 1 million people.

 

 

Here's some important posts from the past....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a couple of maps of Ohio railroad lines that show (or accurately suggest) the extent and quality of railroad infrastructure available. First, here's a map that shows what's available. Railroad lines with two parallel main tracks of roughly equal quality and capacity are shown in this map. Assuming the track conditions and engineering (degree of curvature, gradients, curve banking, number and type of road crossings) plus the signal system capabilities are the same, railroad line with two tracks generally avails faster travel times than a railroad with only one track offering occasional passing sidings (they don't count as two-track mainline segments) because a certain amount of wait time is built into a train schedule to account for trains having to sit in sidings waiting for opposing traffic to clear. Even if there is little or no opposing traffic on a given day, an early train still has to wait at the next station to depart at its scheduled time.

 

So you want to run passenger trains where there's more two parallel main tracks, or at least where you don't have to add as many track-miles of parallel main track....

 

 

 

And while getting bogged down in heavy freight train traffic isn't a good thing, the routes where most of the freight trains are running usually are built with the heaviest duty track infrastructure and have the best track conditions as well as best traffic control/signal system capabilities. On thicker lines with more rail traffic, the tracks and traffic control system are built to higher standards, offering higher train speeds or at least the potential for it. So while there's the risk of getting stuck behind a freight train doing only 40-60 mph, that's a lot faster than any train can go on most of the of the skinnier lines on this map. It may be worth the occasional freight train delay (which can still be mitigated by constructing more track/signal system capacity in more heavily trafficked sections) to run a passenger train on a thicker line than having to rebuild 50-100 miles of a secondary or backwater rail line to mainline standards.

Ohio's State Freight Plan from the Transport Ohio hub might be of interest to some of you in this forum: 

 

https://ohiostatefreightplan-ohiodot.hub.arcgis.com

1 hour ago, mrnyc said:

that reminds me, i wanted to ask why can't the 3Cs+D train route go down to akron-canton before heading over to columbus and dayton? why does it have to follow I-71 down nowheresville to columbus? i assume there is a reason here why dayton gets amtrak, but akron-canton does not? is it they can't imagine swinging a train route around the cuyahoga valley for some reason, maybe?

Looks like your question was answered as for why, which is something I suspected – lack of existing adequate rail available to make it a 3C-A-D corridor.

 

I'm not railroad expert, but can follow where rail lines go on a map and it seems like there a a couple options for Akron to potentially be added down the line (probably way down the line ... after most of us are long gone). But there it appears there are two E-W lines that go through downtown Akron that have to intersect with the N-S 3C-D route. The one goes through NW Akron and then through Medina. The other goes more southwest through Barberton and then through Wadsworth and Rittman and into Lodi. 

 

I'm sure either would take significant upgrades to what would be 30-50 miles of track (since neither are straight shots), but it looks like there are a couple options to connect Akron (and then maybe even Canton and Youngstown even further down the road) into the main 3C-D line. 

 

It won't help for 3C-D, but Akron-Canton specifically could also be connected to the  E-W lines through Cleveland via the CSVR. Again, probably too costly to ever gain traction in the near future, but it seems reasonable that if anything happens beyond just the 3C-D line, that Akron (since it would be the largest metro unserved) would be next up on any further expansion in some capacity.

FWIW Akron MRTA owns some of the rail right of ways that run through the city. Importantly, Akron owns the line that runs between Akron and Canton (that passes CAK Airport) and a portion north of Akron towards Hudson.

 

According to the maps Ken included it appears to be a lower quality rail line that would require significant improvements before it could accommodate passenger rail. But city ownership of the line should make prioritization of passenger rail easier, right?

 

Rail right-of-way map with good detail of ownership and number of trains/day:

https://ohiodot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=82f597df8411453cafb18d62c371bc47

Ohio is ‘textbook case’ for passenger rail expansion, Amtrak official says

 

Columbus has its best shot in decades at losing the distinction of being the second-largest U.S. city without passenger rail service.

 

Thanks to the massive infrastructure package passed by Congress a year ago, the federal government has $1.8 billion to allocate toward establishing a pipeline of projects to expand, enhance or restore passenger rail across the country.

 

The state’s pending application for funding to study potential rail corridors was the subject of the Columbus Metropolitan Club luncheon this week.

 

Arun Rao, director of network development for Amtrak, said he was encouraged by Ohio’s prospects, calling the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati corridor “a textbook case where intercity passenger rail can be commercially viable.”

 

Rao said Amtrak has identified “gaping holes” in its service nationwide, “and unfortunately, Ohio was a big one.”

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2023/03/17/ohio-is-textbook-case-for-amtrak-expansion.html

 

On 3/2/2023 at 1:00 PM, KJP said:

He's from Ashville, a part of Ohio that's been forgotten. And yes, I had to look up where it is (it's between Columbus and Circleville). Give that area a split of the Cardinal from Portsmouth, up to Columbus, Toledo and Detroit. Maybe that'll shut him up.

 

The funny part about Ashville is that you can tell just by looking that much of the town's economy was centered around the train tracks in the days when trains stopped there. And that it was more important then than it is now. But now it's a Harley District so he's gotta speak to those guys.

The downside is that ORDC couldn't give two sh!ts about passenger rail. They have zero interest in it. Having Ohio rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission would help, but ORDC is opposed to that as well. The only way we're going to get passenger trains in Ohio is to transfer passenger rail responsibilities such as to ODOT Transit (which funds intercity buses) or the Ohio Department of Development (we subsidize airline service from ODOD after all). Or, an MPO like NOACA is going to have to partner with a neighboring state like Pennsylvania or New York or Michigan whose state DOTs will have to submit the applications written by NOACA...

 

Ohio commission moves one step closer toward expanding passenger rail service

The commission applied for the first phase of funding to study what it would take to bring an Amtrak to Ohio.

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/ohio-commission-moves-closer-toward-expanding-passenger-rail-service/530-b7d5872d-0277-4bf0-8e13-3acf9eeb8c0e

17 minutes ago, KJP said:

The downside is that ORDC couldn't give two sh!ts about passenger rail. They have zero interest in it. Having Ohio rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission would help, but ORDC is opposed to that as well. The only way we're going to get passenger trains in Ohio is to transfer passenger rail responsibilities such as to ODOT Transit (which funds intercity buses) or the Ohio Department of Development (we subsidize airline service from ODOD after all). Or, an MPO like NOACA is going to have to partner with a neighboring state like Pennsylvania or New York or Michigan whose state DOTs will have to submit the applications written by NOACA...

 

Ohio commission moves one step closer toward expanding passenger rail service

The commission applied for the first phase of funding to study what it would take to bring an Amtrak to Ohio.

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/ohio-commission-moves-closer-toward-expanding-passenger-rail-service/530-b7d5872d-0277-4bf0-8e13-3acf9eeb8c0e

I noticed in the interview it mentioned 2 applications.  The 3C+D of course but also mentioned the Pitt-Cbus-Chi line.  I wasn't aware the Pitt/Chicago line for Columbus had formally been applied for.  Do we have this confirmed?  That line would open up a ton of options for Columbus outside of Ohio.

MORPC applied for the same funds for Chicago-Columbus-Pittsburgh for the same purpose (service development plan) as ORDC did for 3C+D and CLE-DET, and as NOACA is doing for Cleveland-Pittsburgh, Cleveland-Buffalo, and Cleveland-Chicago, and as OKI is doing for an upgrade of the Cardinal route to Chicago.

1 hour ago, KJP said:

OKI is doing for an upgrade of the Cardinal route to Chicago.

If I understand the process, for more service between Cincinnati and Chicago there are only three options:

1. A state/group of states supports a new route
2. Amtrak brings back an old long-distance service that includes that corridor
3. Amtrak chooses to run the entire Cardinal route differently/more frequently

In other words, it is not possible for Amtrak to run a special version of the Cardinal that only goes between Cincinnati and Chicago.

Can't they just bring back the recently-defunct Hoosier State and extend it to Cincinnati?

3 hours ago, Gnoraa said:

I noticed in the interview it mentioned 2 applications.  The 3C+D of course but also mentioned the Pitt-Cbus-Chi line.  I wasn't aware the Pitt/Chicago line for Columbus had formally been applied for.  Do we have this confirmed?  That line would open up a ton of options for Columbus outside of Ohio.

 

While the 3C+D line would likely be better for the state as a whole, the Pitt-Cbus-Chi line would be a much better option for Columbus. This would allow you to much more easily travel to NYC by train, and far more people in Columbus would be likely to take a train to Chicago than they would to Cincinnati for Cleveland. 

15 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

Can't they just bring back the recently-defunct Hoosier State and extend it to Cincinnati?

 

That would depend on Indiana. I don't see Indiana doing anything either.

 

6 minutes ago, cbussoccer said:

 

and far more people in Columbus would be likely to take a train to Chicago than they would to Cincinnati for Cleveland. 

 

USDOT data says many more people travel CLE-COL or COL-CIN than COL-CHI.

41 minutes ago, KJP said:

USDOT data says many more people travel CLE-COL or COL-CIN than COL-CHI.

 

Yes, that's obviously true. It doesn't disprove my suggestion though. There are vast differences between Chicago and Cleveland/Cincinnati, such as drive time from Columbus, cost of parking, quality of public transportation, density of amenities, reason for people traveling to each city, etc. Furthermore, I'm also considering the usefulness of being connected to NYC by train. Currently, you either have to drive to NYC (painful and expensive) or fly to NYC (very expensive) from Columbus. Being able to take the train to NYC would provide a very nice alternative. 

 

With that said, I'll take whatever line I can get in Columbus, I just want Amtrak service back. Once we get it back, I think more lines will start to be added as our population continues to grow. I'm just saying that driving from Columbus to Cleveland or Cincinnati is so easy already that it will be extremely difficult to convert a lot of those travelers to the train, whereas people traveling to Chicago or NYC will be much easier converts.  

 

 

 

 

A benefit of Columbus-Chicago train service is that it would not have to compete with a direct Interstate highway. After investing about $1 billion to bring the tracks and signal system up to passenger train standards and restore missing tracks between Gary, IN and Chicago, a 6-hour run time may be possible.

 

Taking the train to NYC from Columbus would take about 13 to 14 hours after investing hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Amtrak currently takes 9 hours from Pittsburgh to NYC, at 110+ mph east of Harrisburg. In 1979, Amtrak's National Limited took 4½ hours to travel nonstop from Columbus to Pittsburgh over a route that has since seen its signal system removed and 40 miles of track pulled out from Weirton, WV to Pittsburgh. Trains can reach Pittsburgh from Columbus now, but follow the Ohio River via East Liverpool which, for a passenger train, will add another 30 minutes or so to the trip. A train service might be competitive if it ran overnight from Columbus to NYC, leaving each city at about 6 pm and arriving the other at 10:00 am.

3 hours ago, KJP said:

A benefit of Columbus-Chicago train service is that it would not have to compete with a direct Interstate highway. After investing about $1 billion to bring the tracks and signal system up to passenger train standards and restore missing tracks between Gary, IN and Chicago, a 6-hour run time may be possible.

 

Taking the train to NYC from Columbus would take about 13 to 14 hours after investing hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Amtrak currently takes 9 hours from Pittsburgh to NYC, at 110+ mph east of Harrisburg. In 1979, Amtrak's National Limited took 4½ hours to travel nonstop from Columbus to Pittsburgh over a route that has since seen its signal system removed and 40 miles of track pulled out from Weirton, WV to Pittsburgh. Trains can reach Pittsburgh from Columbus now, but follow the Ohio River via East Liverpool which, for a passenger train, will add another 30 minutes or so to the trip. A train service might be competitive if it ran overnight from Columbus to NYC, leaving each city at about 6 pm and arriving the other at 10:00 am.

These are all very valid points and I don’t dispute any of them. The 3C+D option is certainly “low hanging fruit” given the population it will serve and the investment needed. My initial point was simply that a CHI-COL-PIT would likely be more useful for Columbus residents than the 3C+D. Long term, I do think Columbus officials need to do everything possible to make a CHI-COL-PIT happen. 

6 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

These are all very valid points and I don’t dispute any of them. The 3C+D option is certainly “low hanging fruit” given the population it will serve and the investment needed. My initial point was simply that a CHI-COL-PIT would likely be more useful for Columbus residents than the 3C+D. Long term, I do think Columbus officials need to do everything possible to make a CHI-COL-PIT happen. 

 

I don't think any route involving Columbus is low-hanging fruit. It's been 44 years since a passenger train has served Columbus. To bring any rail corridor involving Columbus up to passenger train standards is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Perhaps the only ones that won't are the extension of a Wolverine Corridor train from Detroit through Toledo to Columbus (ironic, huh?) or maybe a section of the Maple Leaf from Buffalo through Cleveland to Columbus. But there are still lots of things wrong with the rail infrastructure within those two routes that would take tens of millions to fix, not the least of which is that Columbus doesn't have a station or a place to store and service the train(s) overnight in between runs.

 

The low-hanging fruit in Ohio involves the existing routes, such as a daily Cardinal through Cincinnati, an extension of a Keystone West train to Cleveland or even Detroit, the extension of a Wolverine train to Cleveland or even Pittsburgh, and the extension of an Empire Corridor train/Maple Leaf section to Cleveland or even Columbus. 

2 hours ago, KJP said:

 

I don't think any route involving Columbus is low-hanging fruit. It's been 44 years since a passenger train has served Columbus.

I meant low hanging fruit in terms of options that would bring passenger trains back to Columbus while also serving a large portion of the state’s population as a whole.  It’s obviously not going to be a piece of cake, otherwise it would have been done by now, but given the size of Columbus and the rate at which it’s growing, it’s needed. 
 

There are plans for a downtown station, but it’s pretty difficult to build a station until you know you are getting a route. Approve the route, and the station will get built. 

1 hour ago, cbussoccer said:

I meant low hanging fruit in terms of options that would bring passenger trains back to Columbus while also serving a large portion of the state’s population as a whole.  It’s obviously not going to be a piece of cake, otherwise it would have been done by now, but given the size of Columbus and the rate at which it’s growing, it’s needed. 
 

There are plans for a downtown station, but it’s pretty difficult to build a station until you know you are getting a route. Approve the route, and the station will get built. 

 

Columbus could build a "downtown transit center" where they also want their railroad station and add the station platform and access later. But there's a risk in that because the freight railroads may not want a station where the community wants it. That would only be determined as a result of a Service Development Plan.

15 hours ago, KJP said:

A benefit of Columbus-Chicago train service is that it would not have to compete with a direct Interstate highway.

 

This is a great point. My wife has an annual conference in Chicago, there isn't any particularly good route to drive there from the Columbus area. We usually drive via Lima/Ft Wayne, which is shorter in miles but includes 2-lane stretches, lots of stoplights, and long stretches with few services. It's usually takes 6-7 hours, worse if we hit any city at rush hour. Then there is the annoyance and very non-trivial expense of parking once we get to Chicago (conference is in the loop), storing a car we aren't going to use the entire time we are there.

 

We've flown it a few times as well, the overhead of air travel takes away from the time savings from the flight. It's also expensive (especially now that there are three of us). The best part of that trip is not having an expensive-to-park car in Chicago, and taking the orange line from Midway to our hotel.

 

I'd absolutely love to take a train instead, even if it cost the same and flying and took as long as driving.

With regards to the downtown station proposal, I thought I read somewhere that they were likely going to include a station out on the West side of town before heading on to Springfield.  By no means am I train expert here with regards to infrastructure, but could the area by Hollywood Casino be an option?  The Camp Chase Trail has tracks that go right along the property on the back end where there is ample space to allow for overflow trains that need stored.  I also feel like there is ample space for the "park and ride" option as well.  Quick screenshot provided.  The red line is the current tracks, yellow highlight is the area they could build up a station/overflow tracks.  Purple is the upcoming new hotel and the huge X is obviously the soon to be torn down Westland Mall site.

Edited March 30, 20232 yr by Gnoraa

4 hours ago, KJP said:

The low-hanging fruit in Ohio involves the existing routes, such as a daily Cardinal through Cincinnati

 

I thought that I read somewhere that The Cardinal might be expanded to 2 trains per day?

 

 

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Gnoraa said:

With regards to the downtown station proposal, I thought I read somewhere that they were likely going to include a station out on the West side of town before heading on to Springfield.  By no means am I train expert here with regards to infrastructure, but could the area by Hollywood Casino be an option?  The Camp Chase Trail has tracks that go right along the property on the back end where there is ample space to allow for overflow trains that need stored.  I also feel like there is ample space for the "park and ride" option as well.  Quick screenshot provided.  The red line is the current tracks, yellow highlight is the area they could build up a station/overflow tracks.  Purple is the upcoming new hotel and the huge X is obviously the soon to be torn down Westland Mall site.

There has been no mention of a west Columbus station by Amtrak or any of the planning organizations that I’m aware of. I agree that it would be worthwhile to have a station in that general area.

48 minutes ago, mrCharlie said:

We've flown it a few times as well, the overhead of air travel takes away from the time savings from the flight. It's also expensive (especially now that there are three of us). The best part of that trip is not having an expensive-to-park car in Chicago, and taking the orange line from Midway to our hotel.

 

Flights to Chicago can be extremely cheap at times, cheap enough as a couple to essentially be a wash with driving and paying to park depending on how long you are going to be there. I've flown to Chicago for as little as $120 round trip, so $240 for my wife and I. Parking in Chicago for 3-4 days can easily get up to the ~$200+ range. Then you factor in the cost of gas and the toll roads and you might as well just fly and save yourself a few hours. 

 

But yea, once you get to 3+ people, driving makes more sense unless you have some SW points to get you a free flight, which isn't hard to do considering how short of a flight it is. 

1 hour ago, Lazarus said:

I thought that I read somewhere that The Cardinal might be expanded to 2 trains per day?

There was a recent article in the Courier from Chris Wetterich talking about it in February. Their goal is to initially make the Cardinal a daily route, with the hopes of eventually having it become 4 times a day.

ORDC to pursue 3C&D and CLE-Toledo-Detroit study grants is apparently in the transportation budget that was sent to DeWine  

 

10 hours ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

ORDC to pursue 3C&D and CLE-Toledo-Detroit study grants is apparently in the transportation budget that was sent to DeWine

IIRC it also authorizes an organization selected by the ORDC to operate rail in Ohio. This would have locked out Amtrak service otherwise.

The big news is buried in the last line of the story: 90 percent of area leaders support Amtrak.

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2023/03/31/columbus-area-officials-must-have-game-plan-for-must-reach-consensus-on-transit-issues-as-area-booms/70046661007/

 

 

If I’m reading this correctly, this seems like a big win for passenger rail in the state?

 

Traveling from Columbus to Chicago. It's sad how hard it is to get around.....

 

 

On 3/30/2023 at 9:34 AM, Gnoraa said:

With regards to the downtown station proposal, I thought I read somewhere that they were likely going to include a station out on the West side of town before heading on to Springfield.  By no means am I train expert here with regards to infrastructure, but could the area by Hollywood Casino be an option?  The Camp Chase Trail has tracks that go right along the property on the back end where there is ample space to allow for overflow trains that need stored.  I also feel like there is ample space for the "park and ride" option as well.  Quick screenshot provided.  The red line is the current tracks, yellow highlight is the area they could build up a station/overflow tracks.  Purple is the upcoming new hotel and the huge X is obviously the soon to be torn down Westland Mall site.

 

The Camp Chase line (former New York Central main to Springfield, Dayton and Cincinnati) is now a dead end branch to a grain elevator at Lily Chapel so a stop near the casino will not work. Any initial 3CD service would use the NS line past Buckeye Yard since it still exists as a thru route. Later, the Camp Chase line *could* be rebuilt to London OH as a part of dedicated passenger line, but that is a LONG way off.

12 hours ago, KJP said:

Taking the train from Columbus to Chicago. It's sad how hard it is to get around.....

 

 

There are a couple of problems when it comes to driving from Columbus to Chicago. One is the circuitous route and the other is having to pay a small fortune to park your car if your destination is in or near downtown. As a result, I usually flew to Midway and took the Orange Line to downtown from there.

 

This is why a direct Columbus-Chicago rail line makes so much sense. There is definitely a need for a direct connection to Chicago, the biggest rail hub in the country.

Edited April 2, 20232 yr by neony

14 hours ago, KJP said:

Traveling from Columbus to Chicago. It's sad how hard it is to get around.....

 

 

It is not too hard to get around if you have a car, just sayin

What a tone deaf and embarassing response. Maybe bc our culture subsidizes sprawl via a tax on us all (infrastructure, fossil fuel, and car dependency). Would encourage you to visit or study other first world countries/societies that prioritize humans. 

3 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It is not too hard to get around if you have a car, just sayin

Moving yourself around is easy once you spend $30,000, pay for insurance annually, pay for fuel for every move and every few years get a license to be allowed to operate all that stuff you had to purchase 

2 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It is not too hard to get around if you have a car, just sayin

Don't troll 

21 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

Don't troll 

Not trolling at all. Just pointing out that some areas of the country are easier to get around with a car while others like the East coast you can use public transportation much easier. Personally, I would have no problem exploring Washington, Boston and NYC without stepping foot in a car but to explore Columbus or Indianapolis effectively, you probably need a car.

18 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

Not trolling at all. Just pointing out that some areas of the country are easier to get around with a car while others like the East coast you can use public transportation much easier. Personally, I would have no problem exploring Washington, Boston and NYC without stepping foot in a car but to explore Columbus or Indianapolis effectively, you probably need a car.

Don't gaslight me, either.

5 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It is not too hard to get around if you have a car, just sayin

 

On desktops, my signature at the bottom of each post is applicable. If you're only on a mobile, it says...

 

"American cities steal your freedom of movement and sell it back to you for the price of a car." --John Berger

 

 

8 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It is not too hard to get around if you have a car, just sayin

Hah. Maybe a lot of us DON'T WANT to drive everywhere!!! Just sayin'

1 hour ago, neony said:

Hah. Maybe a lot of us DON'T WANT to drive everywhere!!!

And maybe some of us will want to travel before we're old enough to drive, and after we're too old to drive!

Amtrak, U.S. DOT officials like Columbus' chances for restoring passenger rail

 

Central Ohio's effort to restore passenger rail service through Columbus has cheerleaders among those who will decide the project's fate.

 

Returning Amtrak to the underserved region after four decades would help "realize our vision for passenger rail," said Derrick James, the service's director of government affairs, who praised Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for directing the state to apply for a key grant to start the process.

 

An official for the U.S. Department of Transportation, which will award those grants, was even more encouraging. Both were among speakers at the recent Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission's annual State of the Region event.

 

"We're excited for hopefully getting an Amtrak station here in the city of Columbus again," said keynote Charles Small, DOT deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs. "We might have some good news for you soon."

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2023/04/03/morpc-state-of-region-amtrak-future.html

 

If anyone has a subscription, can you please e-mail the entire article to me at [email protected]? Thanks!

48 minutes ago, ColDayMan said:

Amtrak, U.S. DOT officials like Columbus' chances for restoring passenger rail

 

Central Ohio's effort to restore passenger rail service through Columbus has cheerleaders among those who will decide the project's fate.

 

Returning Amtrak to the underserved region after four decades would help "realize our vision for passenger rail," said Derrick James, the service's director of government affairs, who praised Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for directing the state to apply for a key grant to start the process.

 

An official for the U.S. Department of Transportation, which will award those grants, was even more encouraging. Both were among speakers at the recent Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission's annual State of the Region event.

 

"We're excited for hopefully getting an Amtrak station here in the city of Columbus again," said keynote Charles Small, DOT deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs. "We might have some good news for you soon."

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2023/04/03/morpc-state-of-region-amtrak-future.html

 

I’m still worried about this not happening, but it sounds like a lot of positive stuff is happening. 
 

Is the grant they are applying for, just to get a feasibility thing going, or is it to actually start getting the project rolling?  

51 minutes ago, VintageLife said:

I’m still worried about this not happening, but it sounds like a lot of positive stuff is happening. 
 

Is the grant they are applying for, just to get a feasibility thing going, or is it to actually start getting the project rolling?  

 

Planning grant. The amount of planning costs millions of dollars to determine what investments are needed in order to run passenger trains without negatively impacting natural and built environments around it. It also needs to identify how to implement passenger train service without negatively impacting the existing freight service and hopefully even improving it. The lead time for implementing federally funded projects of this scale is measured in years.

49 minutes ago, VintageLife said:

I’m still worried about this not happening, but it sounds like a lot of positive stuff is happening. 
 

Is the grant they are applying for, just to get a feasibility thing going, or is it to actually start getting the project rolling?  

It is effectively a feasibility study. It is a requirement to have completed before applying for the Federal funding. The good news is that the ridership projections will be great and Amtrak will really want to do the route. The bad news is that Ohio legislature isn’t supportive. The infrastructure bill makes it EXTREMELY easy for states to support passenger rail. I’m hoping the business wing of the R party will be able to use that to get the necessary support approved. DeWine is supportive, but not actively advocating. I don’t think we have great odds, but there are at least enough of the right things happening to be optimistic. 

41 minutes ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

It is effectively a feasibility study. It is a requirement to have completed before applying for the Federal funding. The good news is that the ridership projections will be great and Amtrak will really want to do the route. The bad news is that Ohio legislature isn’t supportive. The infrastructure bill makes it EXTREMELY easy for states to support passenger rail. I’m hoping the business wing of the R party will be able to use that to get the necessary support approved. DeWine is supportive, but not actively advocating. I don’t think we have great odds, but there are at least enough of the right things happening to be optimistic. 

That’s how I feel about it. It would be used a lot, but I worry the legislature will 100% deny it.