At the end of this week, the Federal Railroad Administration is expected to release guidelines laying out the process it will use to distribute new funding to expand and improve the nation’s passenger rail network.
After that happens, all eyes will be on Governor Mike DeWine’s administration – will Ohio join the long list of states that are actively working to bolster existing Amtrak service and build out new lines, or will DeWine follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, John Kasich, who turned down $400 million in federal rail money at the beginning of his term in 2010?
UPDATE: State’s Actions a Positive Sign for Passenger Rail Expansion, Advocates Say
Derrick James, Senior Government Affairs Officer at Amtrak, emphasized to a group of transit advocates last month that the next step for the state is really just an expression of interest, not a commitment to support any specific program, either financially or otherwise.
“What we need the state to do is to raise its hand in mid-May when the federal government says, ‘who wants to participate in this rail program that is now funded at $66 billion for five years?,'” he said, speaking on a panel organized as part of the Moving Ohio Forward conference. “We need Ohio to step up to the plate and say, ‘yes, we are interested in looking at it.'”
When asked if the state planned to provide that initial expression of interest after the federal guidelines are released on May 14, DeWine’s Press Secretary, Dan Tierney, provided the following statement:
“The Governor has asked the Ohio Rail Development Commission to engage with Amtrak to determine the feasibility and cost of the routes identified in the Amtrak ‘Connects US’ proposal. The feasibility determination is still in process.”
The federal funding, which comes from the infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden last fall, would cover the cost of establishing service along the 3C+D corridor (linking Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland), as well as other service improvements.
The funding would also cover the full operating costs of the new line for the first six years of its operation, so any potential state contribution to the portion of operating costs not covered by fares would only kick in after that. And a commitment from the state to eventually provide those funds would not be required until next year – in May of 2023, when the FRA plans to issue a report to Congress with ridership and cost estimates for the all of the new proposed corridors.
“It’s at that point that states where the corridors exist can say ‘yay or nay’ that they want to start to participate financially,” said James.
So Ohio still has time before this latest window of opportunity for passenger rail closes, but other states are not hesitating to express their interest in the new funding – either to continue progress that has been made since the last infusion of federal money, in 2010, or to jumpstart efforts to establish new service.
Tennessee, a state that has not invested in passenger rail in recent years, took a step toward changing that when bi-partisan legislation in support of expanding Amtrak service passed the state senate earlier this year (Tennessee has a Republican governor and a legislature which is controlled by a Republican supermajority, like Ohio’s).
“There are lots of examples, and not that far from Ohio’s borders,” said Stu Nicholson of All Aboard Ohio, during the Moving Ohio Forward conference, when asked about other states’ investments. “Michigan has invested heavily in passenger rail, really going back more than ten years, so they’ve got excellent service – 110 mph service on a good portion of the corridor between Detroit and Chicago – and they’ve experienced economic development growth at the various station stops.”
“Virginia has been very aggressive, North Carolina has been very aggressive and progressive about passenger rail investment,” he added. “Pennsylvania is getting there, they just announced that they are extending their Philadelphia to Harrisburg service as far as Pittsburgh and perhaps up to Cleveland at some point…Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, they’re all at various stages of passenger rail development.”
“Minnesota is a new partner,” said James, the Amtrak official. “The legislature decided to invest and match with federal dollars to start new train service between the Twin Cities and Chicago; they felt that that was important to connect those cities, that are about 400 miles apart, and will agree to the operating support over and above what the fares cover.”
(Significant planning work has been done on a proposal to connect Columbus and Chicago – which are less than 400 miles apart – with passenger rail; the route is not in Amtrak’s immediate plans but would get a boost if the 3C+D line happened.)
“In Wisconsin, we have a partnership with the state, and we run 14 trains a day between Chicago and Milwaukee; it’s a very critical part of the businesses community there,” added James. “The state of Wisconsin, their contract is about $6 million a year; that route carries almost a million people a year…prior to the pandemic [and] we were on track to not even need any operating subsidy for that route, the fares were close to covering the operating costs of the train.”
The 3C+D route has the same type of potential to attract riders, advocates say, and Ohio’s central location means that any investment here would also strengthen the national network.
“What we really want to do is broaden the network,” said James. “As we do and add more service, it feeds into itself, and each route feeds into the other routes, and it helps to bring the operating subsidy per person down, to the point that it’s looked at as being a valuable investment that more than pays for itself.”
For more information on advocacy efforts in Ohio around passenger rail, see allaboardohio.org.
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