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The pre-pandemic Willamette Valley rail/bus service was the third try, two decades after the first proposal. The first intermodal package was funded but was killed by a new governor after agreements in principle had been achieved with Amtrak, SP and Greyhound. Five years later an all-rail package with prize-winning ads and poor connections was tried and failed. Nineteen years later the current intermodal approach was gradually put into operation.
Bon voyage, Ohio!
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- Mar 5, 2014
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I was able to read the story and it's news to me, but, very encouraging news. There are some possible reasons for the Governor's interest in this. There's Federal money to be obtained and not left on the table by not using it. The previous GOP Governor took the money when it was available for Medicaid expansion. Many of his Party's members in the General Assembly screamed "bloody murder" about the decision, but, Governor Kaisch did it anyway and it has worked to the benefit of Ohio's citizens. Perhaps Governor DeWine learned a lesson from his predecessor.
The amount of traffic on some of our major highways exceeds the amount for which they were designed. In spite of adding lanes and trying to make changes to accommodate the traffic loads, in the future, it is only going to become an increasing problem. A new passenger rail corridor ought to help this situation.
It's an election year and Governor DeWine's opponent has been a supporter of Amtrak's proposal from the day it was announced. As the former Mayor of Dayton, Mayor Whaley knows what positive potential impact it could have for both the State as well as the region in which I live.
The irony is that Ohio’s rail development commission has the acronym ORDC. The state prison system is called the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, or ODRC. I can imagine that some judge made a mistake and sentenced someone to “5 years in ORDC”, or “5 years in the Ohio Rail Development Commission”, when they meant to sentence the defendant to 5 years in prison. Riding trains for 5 years sounds better than spending time in prison.
George Harris
Engineer
Forgot the occasion, but a number of years ago there was something that Baltimore did that led to someone in the media saying, "If it was raining soup, Baltimore would be out there with a fork and a plate." Sometimes it appears that something similar could be said about Ohio. The map fairly screams, "We are the place for multi-train per day medium distance trains," but yet there seems to be no enthusiasm for it. When whining about the cost of operating trains, compare it to the cost of adding lanes to existing highways or adding new roads. While gas taxes may cover the cost of building and maintaining roads in rural area, they are far under the cost of doing so in urban/suburban areas. When people in rural areas complain about subsidizing trains that serve urban areas, they already are subsidizing the costs of roads in urban areas, so they should be the strongest of proponents of rail service between closely spaced cities.
