Locally, ideas that have been in the works for years seem less like pipedreams and more like achievable visions for the future.
They include commuter trains serving suburbs around Cincinnati, a high-speed multi-state passenger rail network with Ohio at the hub, and a high-capacity freight lines. None stands in isolation. If realized, the plans would make rail-based transport a key player in reviving the region's economy.
Rail projects unite businesses, environmental activists and new urbanists around a smorgasbord of benefits:
- Urban rail, including both streetcars and suburban commuter lines, spur dramatic gains in property values and development
- Drawing cars and trucks off highways eases congestion, and thus the chronic cost of lost productivity and of fuel burnt by idling and slow-moving vehicles.
- Less congestion means cleaner air. Not only do fewer vehicles mean fewer emissions, but free-flowing traffic creates much less pollution than stop-and-go tie-ups.
- Putting more freight on trains would extend the life of highways by easing the amount of heavy-weight trucks they carry. That has long-term implications for critical roads like I-75, which is in the midst of an ambitious multi-state modernization project that encompasses the new Brent Spence Bridge.
- Trains mean fuel savings, which translate into lower costs and less demand for oil imports.
PASSENGER RAIL
Ohio's drive to bring Amtrak service to the so-called 3-C corridor picked up a shot of momentum from Congress last year in the form of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act.
"This last six months has been a whirlwind," said Stuart Nicholson of the Ohio Rail Development Commission. "When Congress passed that (bill) last fall by veto-proof margins in both houses, and Bush signed it, that got things rolling."
The bill represented an about-face on years of Congressional resistance to funding passenger rail. "It established for the first time a multi-years funding plan for ... Amtrak," Nicholson said. "Secondly, it also established a first-ever matching federal grant program aimed at passenger rail development."
With money from the rail bill and additional stimulus funds, Ohio hopes to launch 3C service that would lay the groundwork for eventual high-speed service. " We really have to start to make passenger rail more visible in the heart of Ohio, and the 3-C is quite literally the spine of the state," Nicholson said.
OHIO HUB
The implications of 3-C reach beyond state borders.
Since 1996, Ohio and other states have been working on plans for high-speed rail across the northeastern quarter of the U.S. The Ohio Hub would cover 1,244-miles, reaching five states and Canada, and would make it possible to buy a ticket in Cincinnati for Toledo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, Lima and Ft. Wayne, as well as Chicago. Eventually it would connect with the 3,000-mile Midwest Regional Rail System stretching from the East Coast to Missouri.
A study commissioned by the Ohio Rail Development Commission in 2007 found that, over 30 years, the project would create 16,700 permanent jobs and add $1 billion to regional income, with a benefit-to-cost ratio that would return $1.80 for every dollar invested.
EASTERN CORRIDOR
The Ohio Hub also could connect with a proposed commuter rail line from Milford to downtown Cincinnati, and its potential offspring. Devised under the regional Eastern Corridor plan dating back to 1999, the commuter line would use existing freight tracks, and carry passengers in scaled-down cars, powered with high-efficiency diesel engines, that resemble light rail vehicles.
Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, the leading advocate for the so-called Eastern Corridor plan, makes the case that because the lines use rehabilitated freight lines, there is no reason similar service could not be extended west all the way to Lawrenceburg, for instance.
Amtrak's preference for a downtown station over the existing facility at Union Terminal -- a switch that the Museum Center opposes -- could tie in the Eastern Corridor commuter rail as well as the streetcar at the Transit Center under Second Street. Built during the Fort Washington Way project, the transit center chiefly serves charter buses now, but was designed to accommodate bus and rail traffic. Money to upgrade the space is on Hamilton County's wish-list for stimulus funds.
STREETCARS
Streetcar plans call for the southern end of the downtown route to land directly above the Transit Center (and at the edge of The Banks). Advocates envision extensions serving popular destinations like the Museum Center and nearby neighborhoods.
"Ideally you want to move west to tie in The Museum Center, expand around the University, get to Xavier, tie in as much as you can to attractions and employment centers. Huge swaths of the city would benefit."
"You would not be able to extend from the western edge of Westwood. The streetcars don't move fast enough for those distances, so there are limitations there.
"As you look to the hills, there are interesting alternatives -- inclines, aerial trams. That would be a great way to connect Price Hill, Clifton Heights, Mt. Adams, Mt. Auburn. But you have to start at the center."
FREIGHT
Ohio is spending more than $50 million to upgrade freight handling at sites such as large truck/train/air terminals near Canton, Toledo and Columbus. The spending is part of an effort to exploit the state's central spot on the map with efficient, modern freight facilities. Several states, the federal government and railroads are sharing the $150 million price tag for the Heartland Corridor, a project to lower roads or raise overpasses so freight trains with double-stacked containers can run without detours from the ports of Virginia and North Carolina to Chicago.
Mark Policinsky, executive director of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, said freight traffic is expected to double within as little as 10 years, and that when it comes to railroad needs, "Ohio is in the crosshairs of the future."
Nicholson pointed out that better freight lines also help passenger trains, which share the main line tracks. "Those improvements will ultimately benefit (passenger service) by increasing fluidity and capacity of the corridors."
Policinsky has been urging local officials to prepare for the next expansion front for moving freight: The Ohio River.
Noting that other river ports are already expanding capacity, he said competition will be fierce but the savings are enormous. A railcar replaces 2.3 trucks, he said, but a barge train replaces 264 trucks.
COSTS
All of the contemplated improvements face daunting financial demands.The Cincinnati Streecar plan would cost at least $100 million. Ohio Hub would cost more than $4 billion. The Milford-Cincinnati commuter line would cost $400 million.
While state, federal and private money are expected to cover a major portion of each project, recession-battered voters are edgy about any spending, especially on big-ticket projects. Cost is a major argument raised by streetcar opponents who sponsored an upcoming referendum in Cincinnati.
The outcome of November's ballot question, which calls for direct voter approval of any passenger rail projects, will send a signal about the future of far more than the four miles of streetcar track it is intended to block.
Photography by Scott BeselerSpecial thanks to Entertrainment Junction in West Chester for the wonderful models photographed in this article.