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Ohio applies for rail-service funds
A look at Ohio’s plan for passenger rail service:
State seeking $546 million in federal-stimulus money to begin service.
Conventional-speed trains reaching 79 mph would connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.
Trains would make six stops on the 255-mile route: downtown locations in the four major cities, along with intermediate stops in west Cleveland and Sharonville Park north of Cincinnati.
Amtrak predicts ridership is projected at 478,000 a year.
Ohio’s annual subsidy to keep service operational: $17 million.
COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s bid for $564 million in federal-stimulus money to launch passenger- train service hinges on how much the Obama administration is willing to invest in a state with no track record of rail operations, experts said Friday.
States such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois are seeking millions to upgrade routes so trains could travel from 79 mph to 110 mph. California is hoping to build a system where trains could at least approach European-like speeds of 200 mph.
Ohio’s proposal, submitted this week, seems modest by comparison — a 79-mph, startup rail service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.
States with a history of train service that are ready to boost their speeds clearly have an edge in getting a slice of the $8 billion that President Barack Obama has set aside for high-speed rail projects, said Joe Schwieterman, a professor of public policy at DePaul University in Chicago.
It’s unclear when the administration will announce its funding decisions or what criteria it will use.
Some key members of Ohio’s congressional delegation, led by U.S. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and U.S. George Voinovich, a Republican, sent a letter Friday to the U.S. Department of Transportation supporting the state’s application.
About 6 million people live along the 255-mile Ohio route, making it one of the most heavily populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest — a major selling point that state-transportation officials make in their application.
Amtrak has predicted that a startup service in Ohio would draw 478,000 riders a year and has the demographics needed for successful operations, including population density and a concentration of colleges and universities.
The state aims to build up ridership and gradually make infrastructure improvements so that tracks can handle 110 mph trains, with branches connecting to a Chicago-based Midwest corridor and cities on the East Coast.
In allocating stimulus money, the Obama administration should strike a balance between increasing speeds in states that already have trains and introducing passenger rail to other parts of the country, such as Ohio, said Ross Capon, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.
But the administration also should assess the financial commitment from each state so that federal rail investments can be sustained, Capon said.
Ohio would need to spend as much as $17 million to keep conventional- speed service operational each year, according to Amtrak.
That has drawn criticism from highway-construction lobbyists, who worry that Ohio would divert money from road projects to pay for the train subsidy.
“Ohio is already financially challenged to maintain the roads we have,” said Chris Runyan, president of the Ohio Contractors Association.