OHIO Plan seeks to expand train travel

The passenger rail system would pass through the Mahoning Valley.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
It wasn't uncommon, not long ago, to see the country through the window of a passenger train.
Before airplanes and personal vehicles became the norm, it was easy for even the smallest of towns to see new faces on a daily basis as the trains rolled through the countryside.
Now, congested highways and concerns over air travel are forcing travelers to look for alternatives in getting from here to there. Along those lines, the Ohio Rail Development Commission is looking to revive train travel by connecting a proposed railway system with those from neighboring states.
"We are currently in a feasibility study with our partners, the departments of transportation in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan," explained Don Damron, a planner with the ORDC in Columbus.
The study began about two years ago, he said, but suffered a few delays when planners from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the ORDC decided to seek additional information on tying into surrounding rail systems, alternative routes between Ohio cities, and the costs to renovate railroad infrastructure in the state to accommodate passenger trains.
What's proposed
"The goal is to run six to eight passenger trains each day at top speeds of 110 mph," Damron said. "Most of the existing rails are for freight trains, which run at top speeds of 79 miles per hour."
He noted that the state plans to spend as much as $3.5 billion to upgrade and construct passenger rail lines that would spoke out from Cleveland in four directions. The planned corridors are:
UCleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati.
UCleveland-Toledo-Detroit.
UCleveland-Pittsburgh.
UCleveland-Erie-Buffalo-Niagara Falls-Toronto.
Damron said estimates are that 860 miles of rail would serve more than 22 million people in four states and Canada and would be designed to connect nine major metropolitan areas.
The ORDC said stations would be located in downtown centers, near interstate highways in the suburbs and close to major international airports where possible.
Preliminary results from the feasibility study show that about 75 percent of the ridership would be vacationers and day travelers, Damron said, with the remaining 25 percent using the rail for business purposes.
"We are still looking at the number for commuter possibilities, especially between the Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas," he said.
To connect those cities, he said, ODOT and the ORDC are looking at two possible routes:
UCleveland to Hudson/Macedonia to Alliance to Columbiana/Salem to Beaver Falls, Pa., to Pittsburgh.
UCleveland to Hudson/Macedonia to Warren to Youngstown to New Castle to Pittsburgh.
Some factors to be considered in choosing one route over the other to come through the Mahoning Valley, Damron said, would include what existing tracks can be used in the plan.
"The route that would come through Alliance would be shorter in distance, but we couldn't get the maximum speeds through some of the areas," he said. "The Youngstown route would be longer, but we could reach the faster speeds, so the travel times would be pretty comparable."
Another consideration is using much of the abandoned Lake Erie & amp; Eastern corridor that was used in Youngstown's heyday to transport steel, he added. Much of the track still remains, as do many of the bridges, he said.
Before a definite route is chosen, Damron said, there will be meetings with area planning and government officials, as well as meetings with the general public.
"We're hoping that process could begin as early as next year," Damron said.
In the meantime, ORDC officials plan to release the results of the feasibility study in either February or March of next year, he said.