Just a caution about this "stimulus" money:

 

    If the federal government prints money to distribute to the states for all of these rail projects, the demand for railroad work will instantly rise, making prices for railroad work rise as well. So, if the 3C line would cost $554 million today, it may very well cost much, much more the day that the federal government distributes all that money because prices for railroad work will rise.

There is a contingency of about 10-20 percent in major projects like these at this stage of design. And there is a lot of fat in that 3C estimate, especially when it comes to train equipment.

 

Glad (sort of) to see the Enquirer covered All Aboard Ohio's Cincinnati local meeting.

 

Just a caution about this "stimulus" money:

 

If the federal government prints money to distribute to the states for all of these rail projects, the demand for railroad work will instantly rise, making prices for railroad work rise as well. So, if the 3C line would cost $554 million today, it may very well cost much, much more the day that the federal government distributes all that money because prices for railroad work will rise.

 

Doesn't that depend how much of the budget is devoted to products/services that are hyper-specific to the rail industry?  Given the overall economic lethargy, I wouldn't think rail stimulus would increase general construction prices or commodity prices much, if it all, but I guess we'll see.

I should have also noted that in the global rail industry marketplace, the $8 billion stimulus funding for passenger rail in the U.S. is comparitively small. How small? According to some estimates, capital improvements to railroads worldwide topped $200 billion in 2009.

 

EDIT: BTW, I thought Barry Horstman did a nice job with that Cincinnati Union Terminal article.

I did too. A shame I couldn't make the meeting, but it looks like he recaped it quite well. The plan is still up in the air for the station, but PLEASE don't let it be on the far east end...

^That Puritas rendering with the LRV always made me so mad. The designers should lose some of their fees for being so aloof from the station's operations.

 

 

Amen.

Why not Tower City in the center of the city its on the same Red line that feeds to Hopkins, and is Ohio asking the Federal government to foot a 100% of the bill, if so are other states applying for this funding asking for a 100% also?

Although this is an out-of-state Amtrak-related story, I thought I would post it here, if only because there is this continuing thread of comments about how the 3C Quick Start is "too slow", doesn't compete with driving".....yadda-yadda.

 

What this story illustrates is how a single rail corridor upgrade can make a huge difference in both service and ridership.  This is an example of some of what will be done along the 3C Corridor to ramp up speeds and running times.

 

 

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 2:18pm CST 

Kansas City-St. Louis Amtrak ridership gains steam in DecemberKansas City Kansas City Business Journal

 

Amtrak ridership between Kansas City and St. Louis jumped 16 percent last month compared with the year before, Amtrak and the Missouri Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

 

The increase was the third-highest in December among the 27 state-supported or short-distance routes Amtrak operates. National ridership rose 5 percent.

 

Amtrak and state officials credited the increase partly to improvements designed to reduce delays. In December, the Kansas City-St. Louis trains arrived at their destinations on time 93 percent of the time. The past on-time performance has ranged as high as 79 percent.

 

A new 9,000-foot side track near California, Mo., opened on Nov. 21. The siding allows slower freight trains to move aside for the quicker Amtrak trains.

 

Full story at: http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2010/01/11/daily24.html

NEWS

OHIO RAIL

DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

1980 W. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43223

(614) 644-0306 telephone or fax (614) 728-4520

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Rail/

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                             

Date: 

CONTACT: Stu Nicholson

[email protected]

614-644-0513

 

Ohio Can Be Center of High Speed Rail Manufacturing

Ohio-based EWI Pitches Plan to ORDC Commissioners

 

(Columbus) – As Ohio awaits word from Washington on its $564-million 3C “Quick Start” passenger rail application, an Ohio-based industrial research organization is saying Ohio shouldn’t just be riding passenger trains, but manufacturing them.

 

Columbus-based EWI (Edison Welding Institute) today proposed to ORDC Commissioners that a national center for high-speed passenger rail manufacturing be created here in Ohio.  EWI Business Development Director Dr. Dennis Harwig (PhD) presented their plan, which envisions not only a manufacturing center, but creation of an industrial supply chain of smaller manufacturers to feed what will be a growing passenger rail car industry.

 

It’s an opportunity that excites those who guide Ohio’s economic development efforts.

 

"The opportunity to attract new passenger rail car manufacturers to Ohio and expand the state's existing supply chain of rail car suppliers is yet another example of how Ohio can benefit from the historic federal investment in passenger rail.  The development of multimodal transportation goes beyond the transformative nature the service itself can have on our cities and towns." said Lisa Patt-McDaniel, director of the Ohio Department of Development.  "Ohio's existing manufacturing assets combined with its central location make it the perfect location for the business development that will be needed to support these federal investments.”

 

Indeed, the proposal comes literally on the heels of statements made just this week by USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood in Washington.  ODOT Director and ORDC Commissioner Jolene Molitoris was on hand to hear those remarks.  As Lahood was quoted by the Detroit Free Press: "More than 30 rail industry manufacturers and suppliers have promised to establish or expand their base of operations in the U.S. if they're chosen by the states to build America's new high-speed rail lines."

 

Molitoris went on to quote Lahood as saying: "I'll assure sure those investments in manufacturing help our most distressed communities in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere."

 

EWI’s Harwig says their plan is ideally suited for Ohio because of its industrial capacity for metal fabricating and components, skilled work force, long list of rail and auto industry-related manufacturers and strategic location as a logistics center.  All of this, says Harwig, can attract passenger rail car manufacturers and enable the same kind of growing supply chain as Ohio has seen with companies like Honda.

 

EWI is the leading engineering and technology organization in North America dedicated to the research and development of materials joining and welding. They provide expert materials joining assistance, contract research, consulting services and training to hundreds of members in the aerospace, automotive, government, energy and chemical, heavy manufacturing, medical and electronics industries.  More on EWI can be found at:

http://www.ewi.org/

 

ORDC Executive Director Matt Dietrich says staff will work with EWI to determine the next steps to advance a high speed rail manufacturing center.

 

 

(The Ohio Rail Development Commission is an independent agency operating within the Ohio Department of Transportation.  ORDC is responsible for economic development through the improvement and expansion of passenger and freight rail services and railroad grade crossing safety. For more information about what ORDC does for Ohio, visit our website at: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Rail )

 

 

Proposed rail system could exclude Athens

Jessica Holbrook • Staff Writer • [email protected]

 

In the next few weeks, the federal government will decide whether to fund a project that would connect Ohio's three largest cities by passenger train - but the proposed plan leaves Athens out of the loop.

 

The 3C "Quick Start" Passenger Rail Plan would connect Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati by train beginning in early 2011. It would revitalize a rail corridor that hasn't been used since 1971, said Stu Nicholson, public information officer for the Ohio Rail Development Commission, a division of the Ohio Department of Transportation.

 

The 3C line, named for the cities it connects, would be part of the proposed Chicago Hub Network, a nationwide plan to link the Midwest with high-speed rail.

 

http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=30193

'The passenger trains initially will run at 79 mph, transporting passengers from Cleveland to Columbus in about 3 hours for about $25 each way. As the rail corridor is improved, trains could travel as fast as 110 mph, Nicholson said.'

 

As a resident with family in all 3 'C's' I am constantly making trips back and forth, from Cleveland to Columbus especially (about twice a month) but at 3 hours vs. 2 driving and 25.00 dollars each way, this doesn't seem very economical to me.

That's a bit pricey for the speed that you are traveling on. You either go all the way, or half-ass it and expect it to fail like the Amtrak line from Louisville did. If I can drive from Cincinnati to Cleveland in 3.5 hours on $25 in gas, why should I pay to sit on a train for (I assume) 6 hours and $50?

That's a bit pricey for the speed that you are traveling on. You either go all the way, or half-ass it and expect it to fail like the Amtrak line from Louisville did. If I can drive from Cincinnati to Cleveland in 3.5 hours on $25 in gas, why should I pay to sit on a train for (I assume) 6 hours and $50?

^That's exactly what I was thinking.

Don't forget arriving in another city without transportation!

Don't forget arriving in another city without transportation!

I think that's precisely how it will help urban centers: TRAP THE PEOPLE NEAR THE STATION.

 

Kidding, but seriously, there should be some sort of multimodal transit center at every stop that facilitates perambulation.  Maybe add a belltower like the one Dayton's old station had.  Nothing wrong with adding some tintinambulation to your perambulation.

1. A 3 hour travel time is when the 3C service first starts up. As more improvements are made to the rail corridor (which they will be), those travel times will decrease.  The corridor between KC and St. Louis just opened a new, 9,000 foot passing siding for freight trains and this speeded up their Amtrak corridor trains by a full 15-20 minutes.  The same will happen here.

 

2. If you read the 3C plan, it is clear that train stations will become hubs for local transportation (buses, taxi's, rental cars, bike facilities.  In Cleveland, it will connect with the RTA's "Rapid" at two stations.  All of the transit systems along the corridor have already said they will provide connecting service.

 

3. Fares will probably average between 10 cents to 14 cents a mile, which means a one-way between Columbus & Cleveland would likely be under $25.  Factor in not only the cost of gas if you drive, but also parking at your destination and the cost of wear & tear on your car (and how it affects the value of your car).

 

It's a "Start-up" !! And even if it took 3 hours by train, I would have still rather had the option of riding it, rather than driving froim Cleveland to Columbus last week in that snow.

 

 

Don't forget arriving in another city without transportation!

Yeah -- that's a key issue. I mean, look at airline travel. You not only have to show up in another city without transportation, but they dump you off way the hell out at the airport!

 

It's a "Start-up" !! And even if it took 3 hours by train, I would have still rather had the option of riding it, rather than driving froim Cleveland to Columbus last week in that snow.

 

 

 

Yep it's about having options, plus last time I drove it with traffic around cincy , Columbus, and Cleveland your looking at more like 4.5 hrs driving time, the only way i have ever got under 4 was if i was driving on a Saturday.

 

Not to mention I would much rather watch a movie or read a book for 5hrs then sit behind  a semi-truck or some SUV at 70mph for 4 hrs.

True, and for other people, it's going to be different. I understand it is a startup, but when I compare it to what China is doing and investing in, theirs seems to be for the long-term while ours is a mash-up with the goal of something long-term.

 

Then again, I look at it from the journey. While I've done the drive in 3.5 hours, that's straight through with no stops. I usually dislike doing that, taking the time to travel the back roads and finding something new (you know, for http://www.americanbyways.com). I put on enough miles on my SUV a year (>30,000) to know that mundane driving is very tiring and boring, and would like to have a better choice, but I'm not convinced that spending 6 hours to get to the same destination -- and then figuring out how to go from there would really work out for people like me. I do have a bike...

While I'm no fan of the slow-train project that we'd initially get, it's a start..  Even so, just imagine what someone could do with 3-4 hours sitting on a train; like read, work, or simply learn.  Rather than going into a light coma driving 250 miles..

I don't think we should "start up" with something only marginally marketable or competitive.  That could easily kill any public support momentum we can engender between now and then.  If you're going to do something, do it right.  I would rather wait a couple additional years and then hold a grand opening for a service we can be proud of.  By offering up something that even transit afficianados say "meh" about, we run the risk of permananently spoiling the brand.

 

On another note, I wish we were hearing more about making Ohio the center of rail manufacturing.  I think that's a huge oppurtunity and it's custom tailored for this state, but the window won't stay open forever.  If we sit on our hands, we'll lose that opportunity to a more progressive and coordinated locale.

How do we become a high speed rail manufacturing state if we don't even have real passenger rail here?

 

If you want passenger rail of any speed, we have to start with what we can get done NOW and upgrade it as we go along.  Get it started in the next few years with the Quick start plan and upgrade it as we go along.  In five or ten years, who knows, maybe it will only take an hour or less to get to Cleveland or Cincy from Columbus.  Then everyone will be praising this as "visionary" and a game-changing economic engine for connecting Ohio Cities. 

How do we become a high speed rail manufacturing state if we don't even have real passenger rail here?

 

They're two different things.  China has entire industries set up for export alone.  Even if we aren't gonna have truly hi-speed rail for years, other states are likely to, and we can either let them make the parts or get going on that ourselves.  Ohio may not have passenger rail right now, but it has thousands and thousands of trained machinists.

China is a authoritarian regime - they don't have to make decisions with democratic bounds. They will silence those who disagree with the regime. The U.S. is bankrupt - we don't have the resources to build a ntl. high speed system - or really much else. The Chinese automobile industry is metastasizing at the same time. The entire country needs to start somewhere with effective accessible intercity transit that doesn't rely on cars.

 

3C is about beginning to draw the state (and region) together with accessible mass transit. Not everybody needs to take - not everyone flies or drives either, but that doesn't mean those forms of transit aren't necessary. Rail is better than continuing to invest in roads, because bus based mass transit no longer works. As we become a poorer nation, more people will go without cars, which means they will need other ways to get around. 

Don't take advice from Amtrak on Louisville's short-lived operations. The "Hoosier State" line from Chicago to Indy was extended to Louisville and failed spectacularly. Slow speeds, bad pricing, congested rails and ill promotions led to its demise in the 1990s. And when people discuss bringing back high-speed rail or even light-rail to Louisville, they just bring up the Hoosier State extension. It was bad PR and set Louisville back for years.

 

Music City Star is another good example of what not to do. A cheap conversion for passenger rail from its eastern suburbs to Nashville's downtown, but it is slow, not all that cost competitive and has to share the rails with freight (it's not a dedicated line), and as a result, its passenger numbers have not managed to significantly grow since its inception. The line has almost failed on two occasions...

 

My point is, if the slow-speed 3C "quick start" fails to gain passenger numbers, it can set us back a very long time on anything more significant -- e.g. true high speed service.

I am in no way suggesting that we don't build this.  But I'd prefer we avoid saying "TA DA!" with a half-measure that sours the market on our whole concept.  Patience, grasshoppers.

Again....the 3C Quick Start is a start-up.... which means that it is laying the foundation for more, better and faster trains.  The failure of "Hoosier State" and the others mentioned before is largely due to the fact that they basically put a train on the tracks with little or no improvement to the railroad corridor itself.  If the track is in crappy condition, the trains will go slow and not be competitive.

 

If you look at the breakdown of where the funding for the 3C will go, the bulk of the funding goes toward upgrading the tracks, adding more track, improving signals and grade crossings... all of the things that will not only enable the initial trains to begin running in 2012, but also enable the track speeds to be increased and running times reduced.

 

This is a well-planned project.  The others that Sherman mentions got half-assed results because they were planned in a half-assed manner.

The initial speed of the train and the travel time do not bother me. I'll gladly give up an hour to not have be behind the wheel of my car, plus I can be productive in a train (on my computer and such) rather than being in almost comatose state driving down 71...The price of a one way ticket being 25.00 dollars is what bothered me. I make the trip from Cleveland to Columbus about twice a month which, according to the article, would cost me about 100 dollars. I cannot afford that.

 

strike while the iron is hot!  If we plan to build something for the next ten years without any kind of actual useability, i doubt it will happen (esp. in Ohio), regardless of the potential of a 110+ mph system.  I don't think the public has that kind of patience, and that is an impossible sell for our political leadership.

As easy as it is to point to "failures" and "impossible sells", keep in mind that what is being proposed for Ohio is not an alien concept.  Corridor train service at conventional speeds have been started and have succeeded in more places than the failed attempts mentioned above.

 

State-supported corridors in Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Maine, Missouri, California, Oregon and Washington state all had similar origins to what Ohio is planning for the 3-C's.  All of these systems are today among the best generators of passenger ridership growth in the nation. 

 

The "Downeaster" in Maine (Portland to Boston) has been the 2nd fastest growing passenger corridor in the nation, starting out with 3 trains a day and now at 5.  They are now planning to up that number to 7 trains and extend service further up the coast of Maine.

 

The poster-child for car culture...California...has 6 of the nation's top 10 busiest passenger rail corridors, including #2 (right behind Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Boston-NYC-Washington).

 

All of them started small and at conventional speeds.  But more importantly, all of them invested heavily in improving the rail infrastructure in the corridor to ensure increasingly better track speeds.

 

If we do nothing about advancing intercity passenger rail and improved local transit and gasoline prices again hit $4 or more, what will the political leadership be able to "sell" when the voters who elected them (us) are left with no options to the car and seeing their income eaten up more and more at the pump?

maybe i should clarify what i meant.  I am totally in support of the plan as it stands, it is realistic, feasible, and well-vetted.  Believe me, i will be on the first train when it rolls into town.    I wish we could build a 110-220 mph system and have it be done in 2 years; but that, as far as i understand in my limited view as bystander, is impossible to both fund and construct.  Id rather have a train soon and watch it get incrementally faster year over year as funding permits. 

 

I couldnt agree with you more about the gas thing.  I dont even want to think about the price of gas in 10 years.  Having rail service open soon with perpetual improvement is the right thing to do.  Transportation is a HUGE selling point for Ohio in attracting businesses.  The prospect of a one or two hour train ride between the 3C's and to pittsburgh, detroit, chicago, louisville, indianapolis etc. would be huge in getting more companies to move jobs here.

Thanks for the clarity. Yeah, I undertsnand the desire to have fast trains as soon as possible.  I'm with you on that.  The encouraging news is that if the stimulus grant for the 3C Quick Start come through soon, ODOT has allocated $7-million to the ORDC to begin the environmental review of four high-speed rail corridors and position Ohio for even more funding to get those trains rolling.

Then everyone will be praising this as "visionary" and a game-changing economic engine for connecting Ohio Cities. 

 

Even DanB?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-getting-around-18jan18,0,6021303.column

 

chicagotribune.com

High-speed rail seen as economic engine in Illinois

Downstate Normal, Chicago's West Side among communities looking to ride the rails to modernization

Jon Hilkevitch

Getting Around

January 18, 2010

 

The residents of Normal, Ill., have one word to describe their community's train station:

 

"Amshack."

 

Don't get them wrong. Amtrak's intercity passenger trains provide essential transportation in central Illinois for the twin cities of Bloomington, which includes Illinois Wesleyan University, and Normal, home to Illinois State University.

 

Airline service to the area from Chicago and other big cities has declined in recent years, contributing in part to the train station in downtown Normal ranking as the fourth-busiest Amtrak terminal for passenger boarding in the Midwest, behind Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis.

 

But the station is in bad shape and it's inadequate to serve future needs, officials said.

 

More at above link:

Book Talk: Aboard America's neglected passenger trains

Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:55pm IST

 

By Nick Zieminski

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Anyone who wants to travel by train from the United States' third-biggest city, Chicago, to Houston must board a bus for part of the journey.

 

Amtrak, the national passenger rail operator, no longer directly serves Houston, the country's fourth largest city from the north; a bus connects from Longview, Texas.

 

Such is the sorry state of passenger rail travel in the United States, says James McCommons in "Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service."

 

McCommons, a journalism professor at Northern Michigan University, spent a year riding Amtrak trains, logging 26,000 miles (41,843 km). He interviewed rail advocates, freight executives, politicians and train crews and passengers about how to improve rail travel, relieve highway congestion and cut energy use.

 

McCommons spoke with Reuters about rail politics, his favourite trains, and obsessive rail fans called "foamers."

 

Read the q & A conversation with McCommons at:

 

http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-45543620100120?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

 

BTW: I have read the book and it is easily one of the best narrative accounts I've seen about the state of passenger rail in the United States.  I highly recommend it.

Thanks for the clarity. Yeah, I undertsnand the desire to have fast trains as soon as possible.  I'm with you on that.  The encouraging news is that if the stimulus grant for the 3C Quick Start come through soon, ODOT has allocated $7-million to the ORDC to begin the environmental review of four high-speed rail corridors and position Ohio for even more funding to get those trains rolling.

 

I think I've become much to jaded and burned out.  Unfortunately, my prediction is that Ohio will be offered the stimulus money for the 3-C but the GOP troglodytes in the Ohio Senate will kill it.  The Ohio Democrats won't play hardball with them on the issue because they are too clueless to understand why they should and why they would be able to score points by doing so. 

 

If I turn out to be wrong (that we do get the $$ and the Ohio Senate doesn't kill it), I would be happy to meet up with some UO folks at the Great Lakes Brewing Company and buy a couple of pitchers of beer as my punishment. 

Thanks for the clarity. Yeah, I undertsnand the desire to have fast trains as soon as possible. I'm with you on that. The encouraging news is that if the stimulus grant for the 3C Quick Start come through soon, ODOT has allocated $7-million to the ORDC to begin the environmental review of four high-speed rail corridors and position Ohio for even more funding to get those trains rolling.

I think I've become much to jaded and burned out. Unfortunately, my prediction is that Ohio will be offered the stimulus money for the 3-C but the GOP troglodytes in the Ohio Senate will kill it. The Ohio Democrats won't play hardball with them on the issue because they are too clueless to understand why they should and why they would be able to score points by doing so. If I turn out to be wrong (that we do get the $$ and the Ohio Senate doesn't kill it), I would be happy to meet up with some UO folks at the Great Lakes Brewing Company and buy a couple of pitchers of beer as my punishment.

The Dem's will fight for this once they figure out how to make money on it, don't worry.

Draft of the Statewide Rail Plan was released today:

 

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Rail/Programs/StatewideRailPlan/Pages/default.aspx

^By then it will be too late

I thought the OH Sen GOP passed it when it was up for a vote?

If Ohio gets the FRA grant for the 3C, the ORDC still has to go before the Controlling Board (made up of State legislators) to get the okay to spend the $564-million. 

 

A tough fight?....yes.  Impossible to win?....no.  There is great support building for this at a number of levels....a lot of folks and organizations who will fight for this. Don't believe me?....check out the Facebook pages for the 3C Quick Start or Linking Ohio.

 

But if you sit back and decide it's over before you even get in the fight, you've already lost.

 

This is a fight worth fighting.

any word on when we might hear about a decision?  Ive heard that all the remaining transportation grants were supposed to be announced by the end of the month.  i assume that the President being in Lorain tomorrow might be a good sign that the Midwest will be a focus for job creation and a good chunk of the funding.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers believes that Obama will preface the USDOT/FRA announcements in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. Obama will say something like: "In the coming days, Secretary Lahood and Federal Railroad Administrator Szabo will announce the exciting details of our ambitious new program to jump-start the long-overdue development of high-speed rail in this country...." I've heard this from other sources as well.

 

Additionally, the FRA has to make these stimulus awards public by Feb. 17, per the stimulus legislation. So we're coming down the home stretch.

 

 

The National Association of Railroad Passengers believes that Obama will preface the USDOT/FRA announcements in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. Obama will say something like: "In the coming days, Secretary Lahood and Federal Railroad Administrator Szabo will announce the exciting details of our ambitious new program to jump-start the long-overdue development of high-speed rail in this country...." I've heard this from other sources as well.

 

Additionally, the FRA has to make these stimulus awards public by Feb. 17, per the stimulus legislation. So we're coming down the home stretch.

 

 

Thanks KJP, good news is coming I hope!

I am certainly hopeful.

 

We have been fighting the good fight very hard -- see www.linkingohio.com for example. And as Noozer states, this is worth the fight. I've been fighting it for 26 years. Others have been fighting for even longer. And that's why we'll win. We will out-fight, outsmart and outlive our opposition.

 

But if you sit back and decide it's over before you even get in the fight, you've already lost.

 

This is a fight worth fighting.

 

I've been in the fight for 15 years.  Just keeping my expectations low due to past experience.  I know the fight is better organized in Ohio than it has ever been.  Also attempting some level of reverse psychology.  I'm really hoping I have to buy those couple of pitchers of beer.  :wink: Few things would give me greater pleasure. 

 

Getting past the Controlling Board is only the first step.  Won't the legislature ultimately have to approve ODOT's budget when it comes time to fund the operations?  Granted, that's a ways a way... one thing at a time, but still... 

 

And that's why we'll win. We will out-fight, outsmart and outlive our opposition.

 

Part of me is just exhausted and tired of waiting...  me, my family, friends and fellow Ohioans and my state's economy need those trains yesterday.  Plus its very frustrating to see partisan ideological types in the Ohio legislature who oppose this thing mostly because it's an Obama/ARRA-stimulus/Strickland/Democrat-led initiative.  It doesn't matter to them what the fact are about the economic payback and jobs created or that a clear majority of Ohioans have supported investments in passenger rail for many years. These folks are a minority in their own party to boot.  Facts and democracy mean less to this very small but influential number of legislators than partisan politics. 

 

 

By the way, on the Linking Ohio home page... there isn't a single mention of JOBS.  A good part of this has to be about jobs and the economy.  That needs to be prominently displayed on the homepage.  Yeah, there's the 'economic benefits' button, but there should be a line on the homepage that says something similar to:  "The 3-C is also about creating 11,000 jobs" with an embedded hotlink on the word "jobs" that takes you to the economic benefits page. 

The article below was in a Tiffin, Ohio-based publication whose incredibly selfish author ( Brad Mandell ) -- ignoring the benefits of adding rail to a populous and busy travel corridor -- previously wrote the following message to Linkingohio.com.......

 

___________________________

 

Name: Brad

 

Email: [email protected]

 

Comments:

Since you have not included NWO, I will be sure to do everything in my power to sink this project. My media company reaches over 2 Million people in Ohio on a monthly basis, and I plan on letting all of them know what a bad idea this is.

 

___________________________

 

 

Rail plan would be unneeded

POSTED: December 29, 2009

 

Sometime next month, the Federal Rail Administration is to decide whether Ohio will get $564 million to develop passenger rail service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.

 

There are several problems with the proposal, and we'll list them here, but the bottom line is the system would be redundant.

 

One problem is the initial cost. Earlier this year, the cost of upgrading rail equipment to permit passenger trains to go up to 79 mph was estimated at $250 million to $400 million. Of the latest amount, about half would be spent on improving property owned by CSX, Norfolk Southern and the Indiana & Ohio Railway Co. In other words, public funds would be spent to improve private property.

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/520127.html

I'd think up some kind of retaliatory or punitive action for this person, but I'm satisfied that living in Toledo is punishment enough.

 

I doubt he can do much to influence this matter.

For one thing, he is dead wrong about NW Ohio not being included in the State's passenger rail plans.  The ORDC secured $7-million to begin the required environmental assessment of 4 high-speed rail corridors...including Detroit toToledo to Columbus and Toledo to Cleveland.  That environmental work will begin within the coming month and should be completed about the same time as the first 3C trains begin running.

 

I suggest his newpaper (he is the publisher) be flooded with letters to the editor to tell his readers how completely off-base he is about the 3C start-up.  Maybe he would rather his readers have no option bu paying for gasoline at $4/gallon?  BTW: he brings up the Greyhound bus... apparently, he doesn't realize that Greyhound no longer serves small town Ohio...like Tiffin...and that even service to big cities is far from what it used to be.

Here is what I wrote to him.......

______

 

Dear Reader,

 

Mr. Mandell's argument in the December Advertiser-Tribune against Ohio's 3C "Quick Start" passenger rail plan appears effective at first blush. But it's effective only if we look at the cost side of adding trains to one of the nation's busiest, most densely populated travel corridors lacking them. If we look at the economic benefit produced by the traveler savings, then that same $25-35 per passenger in operating subsidy produces $75 per passenger in traveler savings which results in an economic benefit to Ohio of $232 per passenger! If we only looked at the costs in this state, we'd never get anything productive done -- which explains a lot about Ohio's lack of economic prowess in the past 40 years!

 

And while Greyhound operates six daily buses in 3C Corridor, they are not very passenger friendly. Aside from being cramped and uncomfortable, Greyhound isn't interested in serving short-hault travel markets like 3C anymore. It is impossible to get from Cleveland to Columbus by Greyhound to make a 10 a.m. meeting -- unless you want to leave Cleveland at 4:30 a.m. Greyhound doesn't even serve the City of Dayton where 23 percent of households have no car. Instead, you have take a city bus 40-55 minutes out to suburban Trotwood to catch Greyhound. Lastly, even where Greyhound offers a good schedule, you may not be able to get on board. Greyhound buses are often sold out in the 3C Corridor and the only way to guarantee a seat is to pay an extra $5 priority seating charge. Yet priority seating is available only at Cincinnati and Cleveland. If you want to get on at Columbus, Trotwood or Mansfield, you may be put on standby. Other Greyhound stops have been eliminated.

 

Is this what we consider a First World substitute to driving in a state that wants to compete for jobs with other states and nations that are offering fast, frequent and comfortable trains between its largest cities, employment centers, universities, and tourist sites? Are we so content with our own mediocrity that we cannot understand that this is why Ohio has failed to keep up with its competition around the world? We have to start to change, and the 3C "Quick Start" passenger rail is an important piece of that turning point.

 

K