Transit advocates want bigger focus on Ohio passenger rail
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Train advocates fear a new state report reflects leaders' disinterest in expanding passenger rail across Ohio.
Why it matters: Ohio's passenger rail infrastructure is lacking, despite an overwhelming percentage of residents identifying our rail network as in need of improvement.
- Proposals to add new routes are still unfunded and in the planning stage.
Driving the news: The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) recently updated its State Rail Plan, a massive document tracking the state of Ohio's railways and outlining broader transportation goals.
- Federal Railroad Administration guidance says states should compile such a plan every four years.
By the numbers: Ohio ranks fourth in the nation for rail mileage, with 86 of our 88 counties served by at least one rail line.
- Our over 5,000 miles of rail are a massive economic driver, supporting 613,000 jobs that generate $35 billion in labor income and $164 billion in business output.
Yes, but: Despite all those rails, Ohio has only seven Amtrak stations that served just 134,450 riders in 2023.
What they found: The report identifies issues like a major freight bottleneck in Cincinnati, safety challenges as highlighted by the 2023 East Palestine derailment, and ways the trajectory of the coal and hydrogen industries may affect deliveries and expenses.
- The ORDC has not replied to Axios' requests for comment.
The other side: The report's freight focus suggests state leadership's lack of interest in passenger rail, advocacy group All Aboard Ohio executive director John Esterly tells Axios.
- "I think this document is very much the Rail Development Commission's reaction to the temperature in the room in our state Legislature," he says.
Case in point: This summer, the state eliminated a $25,000 appropriation that would have allowed Ohio to rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission and stripped a commuter rail seat from the ORDC.
Between the lines: The report does lay out four potential routes through Ohio identified by the Federal Railroad Administration's Corridor Identification and Development Program, which aims to create a pipeline of projects and funding.
- The four identified routes are between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati (the "3C&D" corridor); Detroit and Cleveland; Chicago and Pittsburgh (through Columbus); and Chicago and Cincinnati.
- Initiatives to study the first two routes are sponsored by the ORDC.
- None of the routes have been fully funded or planned.
Most Ohioans can't imagine the state with an efficient, useful and fully funded passenger rail network, Esterly says. The last passenger train through Columbus ran in 1979.
- "We're kind of stuck in a rail feedback loop, where the only thing we understand is freight because that's the only thing we have. And the passenger rail service that we do have in Ohio is objectively not very good — the service times are pretty dreadful across the state," he says.