Ohio governor says rail project needs $250M
March 13, 2009 19:06 EDTCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland says the state could restore passenger rail service with $250 million in federal stimulus money.
Strickland’s administration released the estimate Friday. Trains would run along existing freight tracks connecting Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland, with the eventual goal of making the service high speed.
The governor also estimates it would cost $10 million a year to operate the service, less than 1 percent of Ohio’s $7.6 billion, two-year transportation budget.
Strickland says the plan would create up to 6,000 construction jobs and other service-related jobs at train stations.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has asked the state Legislature for authority to seek some of the $8 billion in stimulus funds set aside for rail projects in the U.S.
Governor Strickland Releases 3C Corridor Cost Estimate
March 15, 2009 by John
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Watch out folks. The conservative naysayers in the Legislature and the Ohio Contractors Association (the road gang) are doing their best to derail this idea. It appears that Senate Highways and Transportation Chair Tom Patton will strip out the rail component from the proposed ODOT budget.
Those of you who believe we need 3-C passenger trains MUST contact Sen Patton:
SD24@senate.state.oh.us
Also, contact your own legislator!!!
Ohio passenger rail support growing, GOP skeptical
By STEPHEN MAJORS
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A growing coalition is lobbying for Ohio to build passenger rail along its major cities in the face of skepticism among Republican lawmakers.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday finds that 64 percent of Ohio voters support passenger rail service between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Gov. Ted Strickland, environmentalists, some Ohio mayors and Democratic lawmakers support it.
The Democratic-controlled House has passed a transportation budget enabling Ohio to compete for $250 million in stimulus funds to build the rail.
Republicans who control the Senate are skeptical about the plan’s feasibility and cost. They planned to meet Tuesday afternoon to decide its fate. A vote of the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee is also scheduled.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OH_PASSENGER_RAIL_OHOL-?SITE=WCMHTV&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
The full Quinnipiac College poll…. (part of a larger overall poll on Gov. Strickland’s performance)
Link: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1322.xml?ReleaseID=1276
Interesting breakdown of numbers….even a majority among Republicans polled.
51. Governor Strickland is proposing passenger train service between Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea?
WtBrnAgn
Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Evnglcl
Good idea 64% 56% 75% 59% 62% 65% 57%
Bad idea 29 38 18 33 33 26 37
DK/NA 7 6 7 8 5 9 7
Cntrl NrthE NrthW SthE SthW WstCnt
Good idea 52% 70% 60% 62% 66% 65%
Bad idea 41 23 32 32 31 26
DK/NA 7 8 7 6 3 9
AGE IN YRS……. INCOME…………. NoColl College
18-34 35-54 55+ 100K Degree Degree
Good idea 73% 62% 61% 66% 60% 65% 63% 67%
Bad idea 19 33 31 25 35 33 30 28
DK/NA 9 5 8 9 5 2 8 5
52. If train service between these cities is established, how likely would you be to use it – very likely, somewhat likely, not too likely or not likely at all?
Again…. interesting numbers…if you combine the top two…you have 46% saying they would be likely users. You have to believe those numbers would rise if people knew a larger system of faster & better trains were coming….Stu
WtBrnAgn
Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Evnglcl
Very likely 18% 12% 24% 18% 18% 19% 11%
Smwht likely 28 25 31 29 29 26 25
Not too likely 14 17 10 15 13 14 15
Not likely at all 39 46 35 37 40 39 49
DK/NA 1 – 1 1 – 1 1
Cntrl NrthE NrthW SthE SthW WstCnt
Very likely 19% 19% 15% 7% 20% 18%
Smwht likely 22 33 29 16 24 29
Not too likely 12 14 10 17 16 14
Not likely at all 46 33 43 59 40 39
DK/NA – 1 2 1 – 1
AGE IN YRS……. INCOME…………. NoColl College
18-34 35-54 55+ 100K Degree Degree
Very likely 21% 20% 16% 17% 18% 24% 16% 24%
Smwht likely 31 29 25 29 26 33 27 31
Not too likely 15 12 14 14 16 11 13 15
Not likely at all 33 38 43 40 40 31 43 29
DK/NA – – 1 1 – – 1 1
WE WON!!! Now it’s on to the House-Senate conference committee following passage by the full senate.
Stay tuned….
See also:
http://ohiopassengerrail.ning.com/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 18, 2009
Contact:
Ken Prendergast
All Aboard Ohio Executive Director
(216) 288-4883
kenprendergast@allaboardohio.org
http://www.allaboardohio.org
In late-evening action March 17 by the Ohio Senate Highways and Transportation Committee, legislation was passed giving the Ohio Department of Transportation or the Ohio Rail Development Commission the go-ahead to compete for federal stimulus funding for passenger rail. This is an important step in the right direction for the committee whose chairman was rumored to be intent on stripping all passenger rail language from House Bill 2, the ODOT biennial budget bill for 2010-11.
An omnibus bill adopted by the Ohio Senate Highways and Transportation Committee reads in part: “The Ohio Rail Development Commission or the Director of Transportation may apply for federal funding for passenger rail made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, before any funds for passenger rail are expended, they shall be specifically appropriated by the general assembly.”
The ODOT budget bill is scheduled to be voted on today by the full Ohio Senate. The final ODOT bill must be approved by the General Assembly by the end of this month.
“Getting this passenger rail language from the senate improves the chances of getting a better bill out of the House-Senate conference committee negotiations next week,” said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, a nonprofit advocacy association. “That’s a step in the right direction. We will work with a growing coalition in support of passenger rail to take more steps forward.”
See the bottom of this press release for a partial list of passenger rail supporters. But Prendergast noted that most of the rail support is coming from Ohio’s citizens.
“I was told by someone close to the committee chairman that he received 1,000 phone calls, e-mails, letters and faxes asking him to support passenger rail development in Ohio,” Prendergast said. “Word is he got 500 calls in just one day. That’s called a groundswell and it apparently moved the chairman to rethink his earlier position to remove all of the passenger rail language from the bill.”
Also on Tuesday, Quinnipiac University released a poll that showed 64 percent of Ohio voters support passenger rail service between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati (3-C Corridor). Even though the poll was statewide and that passenger rail is still just an abstract concept for most Ohioans, a surprisingly large number of respondents said they would likely ride 3-C Corridor trains. Highest levels of support were among young adults, those with college degrees and women. Republicans supported passenger rail too, 56 percent to 38 percent. To see poll details, go to
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1322.xml?ReleaseID=1276
“The fact that young people supported passenger rail more than those over the age of 55 shows that passenger rail isn’t about taking a nostalgia trip,” Prendergast said. “This is about jobs, nurturing vibrant communities around stations, and reversing Ohio’s ‘brain drain’ to other states with better rail and transit services. It’s about time Ohio got on board the brain gain train.”
Supporters of starting modern passenger rail service in the 3-C Corridor include:
- Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem
- Brook Park Mayor Mark Elliott
- Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory
- Cincinnati City Council
- Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
- Cleveland City Council
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman
- Columbus City Council President Michael Mentel
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Columbus Clippers
- Columbus Crew
- Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin
- Delaware Mayor Windell Wheeler
- Delaware City Council
- Galion Chamber of Commerce
- Lima Mayor David Berger
- Mansfield Mayor Don Culliver
- Mansfield City Council
- Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland
- plus the Commissioners of Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton and Montgomery counties
All Aboard Ohio’s mission is to achieve for the citizens of Ohio a modern, consumer-focused, statewide passenger rail and public transportation network that provides people with real travel choices they want and can use.
- END -
Transportation bill slashed
Rail corridor survives in state Senate, but work-zone cameras, seat-belt rule killed
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:10 AM
By James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
State senators last night took a knife to many of the most controversial provisions of Gov. Ted Strickland’s transportation plan, including tougher enforcement of Ohio’s seat-belt law, cameras to catch speeders in construction zones and a requirement that drivers turn on their headlights in the rain.
The Senate’s transportation committee did not, however, kill the most debated provision of the plan: a passenger-rail corridor connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.
The Republican-led Senate had been expected to change parts of Strickland’s two-year transportation budget, which had passed the House with the support of Strickland’s fellow Democrats and only one Republican.
However, the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee did more than work around the edges. It took out a provision allowing police to cite drivers for not wearing seat belts, even if that was their only violation. It eliminated a test program to monitor driver speed in construction zones and automatically cite violators. It took out provisions allowing local governments to set up authorities to charge tolls to drivers on new roads.
The changes passed on a party-line vote, with all six Republican senators in support and all three Democrats opposing.
“The governor put forward a very important piece of transportation legislation to the House and the Senate, and it has been dismantled here in the Senate,” said Sen. Nina Turner, D-Cleveland, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Sen. Thomas R. Patton, R-Strongsville, the panel’s chairman, said the changes improved the bill. He noted that Ohio drivers already comply with the seat-belt law more than their peers in other states. The Strickland administration seemed to be motivated by a federal grant, he said.
“If it was something that good, we shouldn’t have had to be coerced by one-time federal funds to do it,” Patton said.
The Senate committee did not eliminate the cornerstone of Strickland’s transportation plan, the medium-speed rail corridor, but it did complicate it slightly. Strickland and Democrats had wanted to submit any costs related to the rail plan to a bipartisan spending panel; Republicans insisted that the full House and Senate vote on the plan.
Rail advocates said the changes shouldn’t spell doom for the railway.
“We’re breathing a big sigh of relief that the (rail plan) is still on track,” said Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council, a leading supporter of the plan.
Earlier yesterday, Shaner’s group, the Sierra Club’s Ohio chapter and All Aboard Ohio, a pro-train group, held a press conference before members of those groups reached out to lawmakers wavering on the train plan.
Tickets would cost about $20 one-way for each leg of the journey between Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati; rail advocates say the trip would be nearly as fast as driving.
The state would spend about $250 million to start up the route and subsidize it by about $10 million a year.
Some Republicans say few Ohioans would use the trains because they would be no faster or cheaper than driving. They also question a large upfront expenditure during a recession.
Proponents of the rail plan called on lawmakers to act quickly in order to vie for $8 billion in grants from the federal stimulus bill that are earmarked for rail service.
Strickland’s office also made a major push to save the train proposal yesterday. It cited support from mayors and city council members in several cities, including the three major population centers along the route, and even noted that sports teams including the Cleveland Cavaliers and Columbus Crew back the idea.
jnash@dispatch.com
http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/18/DERAIL.ART_ART_03-18-09_B1_H8D96QM.html?sid=101
Creating a train service would be great, but what is there to see and do within walking distance of a train station in downtown, Dayton, Cleveland, and Columbus?
Like Charlie Parker said: if you have to ask, you’ll never know.
Sports teams, office jobs, government jobs, theaters, museums, libraries, convention centers, hotels, restaurants, etc…
What John said, but specific to Columbus:
Downtown you have 4 institutes of post secondary education in Franklin, CCAD , Capital Law and CSCC. 2-3 miles north you have the 2nd largest University in the Nation. With a football team who won the National Championship a few years back, consistently produces top athletes, researchers, doctors, lawyers, business professionals and others.
At OSU you have the Wexner Center, as well as a number of other cultural offerings. A few miles north of that you have Crew Stadium, home of last year’s MLS champs.
Returning downtown you have the Main Library for Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, I believe it’s been voted one of the best libraries in the nation. Down the street you have the Columbus Topiary Gardens, Kelton House, Lincoln Theatre. Even further east is Capital University in Bexley and our Governor’s mansion.
Back downtown you have Nationwide Arena, with the Blue Jackets in the hunt for the playoffs. The North Market with local favorites like Jenni’s, which is fast becoming a national name. You have the thriving Short North and German Village, both becoming national icons as well.
You have the Columbus Museum of Art, COSI across the river, the Ohio, Palace and Southern Theatres.
You have major companies like Chase, Abbot, AEP, Huntington and Nationwide (amongst others) and house local, county, state and federal government downtown. Our Statehouse is one of the best examples of Greek Revival architecture. And we have a new museum going in there as well.
Some of these may be a long walk, but by bus (or bike) are more than doable.
Joe Hallett:
Can the political rails be greased for 3-C passenger trains?
Sunday, March 22, 2009 3:34 AM
By Joe Hallett
Columbus Dispatch Columnist
Yes I wanted a beer, but which one? Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi, Suntory — a pleasant little dilemma.
The steward fetched a Kirin from his cart. A couple of hours between Tokyo and Kyoto; dare I sample all four? Relaxing in a leather seat aboard the Shinkansen , one of the world’s fastest trains, I gazed through a picture window at the Japanese countryside, catching a glimpse of distant Mount Fuji.
Is there a better way to travel? Imagine going to see the Reds or Browns like this. Imagine all the Clevelanders who might crowd a train for a game in the ‘Shoe on a splendid fall day. Imagine the convenience of pecking on a laptop while the engineer drives. Imagine not driving with one hand while the other holds a cell phone.
Nearly 40 years have passed since Amtrak discontinued passenger service connecting Ohio’s major cities. One only need ride the rails in Japan, as I did last year, to conjure a romantic image of how convenient, safe and fun traveling by train could be in Ohio.
And one need only drive on I-71 between Columbus and Cleveland to understand the meaning of white-knuckle. There are too many cars and trucks on too little road going nowhere fast. It seems foolish to keep expanding highways when we desperately need to reduce greenhouse gases by burning less fuel, especially when train travel is a safer option.
But is it viable? If rail becomes an option in Ohio, will many of us actually ride the train or will we find it too expensive or inconvenient? Are we simply too tied to our cars? These are questions Republicans controlling the Ohio Senate want answered before the state spends money to resurrect passenger-rail service.
There is urgency to the answers. President Barack Obama’s stimulus package includes $8 billion for states to develop high-speed passenger-rail service. Ohio must be prepared to compete with 30 other states for the grants in June.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration estimates that Ohio needs about $250 million in start-up costs for the initial route connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Thereafter, taxpayers would be on the hook for an estimated $10 million a year — a fraction of the $3.8 billion annual state transportation budget — to help operate the system, because fares won’t cover all the costs.
Strickland wants to fast-track money for the system through the State Controlling Board, a Democratically dominated seven-member legislative arm with authority to release state funds. But Senate Republicans installed a speed bump by requiring the full House and Senate to vote on a rail plan.
Strickland said last week he hopes that doesn’t jeopardize Ohio’s request for rail-stimulus money. “The concern I have,” he said, “is if we apply for a federal grant to move forward with this initiative, will the feds question whether or not the legislature will, in fact, agree to move forward even if the grant resources are provided to the state of Ohio?”
As highways become more crowded, airports more gridlocked, fuel more expensive and air pollution more threatening, passenger-rail service is growing; 14 states already use Amtrak service.
With more than 5 million people living within 15 miles of the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati route, “this is the most densely populated corridor in the United States not served by passenger-rail service,” said Jack Shaner, deputy director of the Ohio Environmental Council.
The initial $250 million capital costs mostly would be used to upgrade existing track to accommodate 79 mph passenger trains. Bullet trains would follow years down the line as ridership increases and the system matures.
Patrick Simmons, head of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division, stopped by Columbus last week to tout his state’s passenger-rail service. More than 700,000 people boarded trains in North Carolina last year, Simmons said, and when gasoline hit $4 a gallon, ridership increased up to 30 percent.
Traveling between Raleigh and Charlotte costs a little more by train than by car and takes about the same amount of time, Simmons said. So, what’s the incentive for people to take the train?
“Because they enjoy the experience,” Simmons said.
I’ll raise a Kirin to that.
Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.
jhallett@dispatch.com
http://dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/03/22/halcol22.ART_ART_03-22-09_G5_2ODA6F7.html?sid=101
If it hadn’t been for the hard work of some very dedicated people and organizations, the 3-C rail passenger proposal would been deep-sixed by the naysayers on the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee, otherwise. The legislature recieved 15,000 phone calls and emails one just this one subject. That, along with some timely endorsements and contacts from others of importance won the day.
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdopinion/2009/03/the_time_is_ripe_for_rail_in_o.html
The time is ripe for rail in Ohio
Posted by The editors March 23, 2009 05:00AM
Categories: Editorial
Legislative partisans have been at loggerheads more than usual as Ohio’s budget needs collide with straitened economic circumstances. That’s particularly so since Democrats control the Ohio House and Republicans rule in the Senate. Yet there’s one bright spot.
When it comes to passenger rail, the partisans have been able to put aside sizable philosophical differences over whether taxpayer subsidies should be used at all to allow the state to go after $250 million in no-match-required federal stimulus money.
Even sweeter, Ohio should enjoy a competitive advantage for this money, since Ohio’s “3-C” passenger proposal linking its three largest cities is as “shovel-ready” as most rail proposals that will go before the feds.
Yes, there are some hiccups. In the Senate rewrite of the state transportation bill, which now must be reconciled with the House-passed Democratic version, Ohio Republicans reserve the right to vote on any expenditure of these railroad funds, should they flow from the federal government. That’s a sensible precaution, given the very rough estimates behind the state’s $250 million figure for getting a passenger rail system up and running. An Amtrak study due in August should help pin down potential revenue and ridership figures for this start-up service linking Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
Yet in the end, logic must prevail. Studies have repeatedly projected that such a rail system would bring solid economic returns to Ohio cities; the hitch has always been the hefty upfront infrastructure and equipment costs.
The truth is that a rail proposal linking Ohio’s largest cities and population centers is exactly the sort of stimulus envisioned by the federal legislation. Not only would it generate construction jobs for the platform and rail upgrades, but it also would bring more people into Ohio’s larger and mid-sized cities to spend their money. And a side benefit would be the boost to freight-rail efficiency from track upgrades in a state where freight rail accounts for thousands of jobs.
For Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, the economic benefits are readily apparent. That’s why the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Columbus Blue Jackets are among the professional sports teams touting this rail plan. They recognize what many lawmakers seem to doubt — that making it easier for Ohio’s sports fans to crisscross the state for favored sporting events is a prime way to stir up spending as well as to help revive downtowns. Such a pragmatic focus also should spur the sorts of upgrades cities must make to create more inviting rail stations with easy connectivity to sporting events, shopping destinations, hotels and business centers.
The $250 million is Ohio’s rough estimate of what it would take to improve tracks and other railroad infrastructure to allow freight and passenger trains to share the same rails, and to buy equipment to get two or three daily passenger trains running among Ohio’s three largest cities.
Realistically, such a system would require annual operating subsidies in the millions of dollars, as other states have found. But the economic payoff should be broader and more enduring than those numbers suggest, while setting the stage for eventual expansion to an “Ohio Hub” of seven state rail corridors linking Ohio’s cities to regional and national passenger rail lines.
http://blog.dispatch.com/dailybriefing/2009/03/lawmakers_work_out_fees_rail_c.shtml
Columbus Dispatch: Monday, March 30, 2009
Lawmakers work out fees, rail compromises
Posted by Jim Siegel, Statehouse reporter on March 30, 2009 10:45 AM
The conference committee for the state transportation budget was delayed until early this afternoon as Gov. Ted Strickland, House Democrats and Senate Republicans put the finishing touches on a compromise bill.
Among the major issues holding up the bill, the Department of Public Safety budget reportedly will be put back into the transportation bill, and there has been a lot of horse trading on the fee increases that Strickland proposed, including those for vehicle registrations and temporary registrations and vision screening.
The decision whether to move forward with a $250 million passenger rail project reportedly will be left to the state Controlling Board, a seven-member legislative spending oversight panel that is controlled by Democrats 4-3. Republicans wanted the full legislature to have final say over the project to connect Ohio’s largest cities. The compromise likely will require a super-majority 5-2 vote for Controlling Board approval.
Officials say they are optimistic the conference committee will work out the bill today, though many are predicting a session that goes well into the night. Strickland must sign the budget by the end of the day tomorrow, so the bill gets the 90 days needed to take effect before the fiscal year ends on June 30.
“I think we’re in good shape,” said Rep. Peter Ujvagi, D-Toledo, who is sponsoring the transportation bill. “We’re just crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.”