The Plain Dealer reports on some encouraging news for Ohio:
Passenger rail service from Cleveland to Cincinnati could be a reality by 2010 if the state gets $100 million in proposed infrastructure stimulus money.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission also intends to apply next year for federal matching grants from a passenger rail bill passed by Congress this fall.
“I’m cautiously ecstatic,” said Stu Nicholson, spokesman for the commission, who envisions two trains making a round trip each day. “The money is the game changer. It changed the whole dynamic.”
The commission, an independent agency within the Ohio Department of Transportation, has long advocated the 3-C Corridor between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. It also advocates the more ambitious and expensive Ohio Hub, a high-speed rail system on seven corridors in the state. Some $200 million is being sought to design and plan the high-speed network.
The state would pay Amtrak to operate the passenger service between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati on rail owned by Norfolk Southern and CSX. The service would connect to other Amtrak routes through Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus has not had passenger rail service for 30 years, Nicholson said.
“The Amtrak planning staff told us that the corridor is probably the best underdeveloped passenger rail corridor in the U.S.,” he said.
