On Tuesday Governor-Elect John Kasich held a press conference to showcase his appointee to head ODOT. When asked about the Ohio 3C Corridor, a plan that would give passenger rail service to the citizens of Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati he said; “So there’s a train cult. ... Part of the feeling in favor of these things are contracts — engineering contracts, construction contracts, snout in the trough. … We’re not going to run some program that some train cult wants to support.”
It has been abundantly clear from the start of the election that Kasich is anti-rail. What is made clear by this statement is that Kasich is in desperate need for a history lesson.
James Seney was appointed to the Ohio Rail Comission by then Republican Governor Bob Taft. Seney, in his six-year tenure as Executive Director spent much time and effort into designing the 3C plan. The plan was put to the Republican controlled Ohio State Senate and passed 33-0, at that time not a single State Senator (Republican, Democrat or otherwise) opposed the 3C project. That was the same senate that decided to seek funding from the USDOT for the project in a separate vote.
Cut to early 2010 and the USDOT awards over $400 billion in grant money to create 8,000 jobs and serve an estimated 478,000 passengers in its first year.
Kasich has made killing the train part of his platform. He proposes that the 3C project is "special interest" and that the money will be better spent on highways and as gifts to private railroads. I think the USDOT might have something to say about that one.
New York and other states are already talking about asking the USDOT for the money when Kasich rejects it. Hasn't Ohio suffered enough? Support passenger rail in Ohio, remind Mr. Kasich that public transit is you and me and our tax dollars.
