Politics threaten to derail Ohio’s high-speed train plan

February 23, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Critics of Ohio’s plan for a passenger-train system have denounced it as a boondoggle and a money pit, and the project appears to be surrounded by political posturing as it heads to a vote this spring.

Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who lobbied the White House hard to get $400 million in stimulus money for the project, has decried detractors as cheerleaders for failure. Republican state lawmakers have been particularly outspoken, raising legitimate questions but often ignoring credible answers.

Plans call for a 79-mph startup rail service that would run on freight tracks connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, beginning in 2012. It would serve as a down payment on a future 110-mph service, with branches connecting to a Chicago-based Midwest corridor and cities on the East Coast.

If anything, Ohio is playing catch-up. Fifteen states already have contracts with Amtrak to operate the kind of start-up, conventional-speed service that Ohio is after, and Amtrak ridership is rising nationwide.

Yet Strickland, who is facing re-election, created confusion last spring by putting a $250 million price tag on the initial Cleveland-to-Cincinnati leg — well before Amtrak had completed an exhaustive study. Once Amtrak released its report in September, the state asked the White House for $564 million.

Now the state is making revisions to get the project within the $400 million awarded in January.

Strickland also said the project can create 8,000 jobs, but that can’t be proved. The figure is based on a formula used by the U.S. Department of Commerce to estimate job growth tied to new rail investments.

But it is true that train projects have sparked economic development in other states. In Saco, Maine, a developer is spending $110 million to turn an old mill into condos and an office park next to a new Amtrak station.

Republicans demanded from the outset to know who would ride the trains and how much money the service would make. Then they trashed Amtrak when it provided answers.

State Sen. Jon Husted said estimates showing a 478,000 ridership were exaggerated. State Sen. Tom Patton suggested Amtrak was biased and said an outside company should have been in charge.

In fact, the ridership analysis was done by AECOM Technology Corp., an international engineering firm hired by Amtrak to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. AECOM, based in Los Angeles, is helping California develop its proposed high-speed train system.