34 replies to this topic

[Railroad Bill]

Not sure if anyone had mentioned this but news conference announced that Ohio would receive $400 million in transportation stimulus monies to build the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati corridor. Expected opening date is 2012?
Everyone who loves trains is still in a cloud but opposition is loud as well. Now where it will end up in Columbus is a question? Hope it will stop in Shelby or Crestline making it an easy ride for those of us in North Central Ohio. Reported it will not be a "high speed line" but with regular Amtrak locos at 69mph or close to it.
Some in Cleveland said it would be much quicker to take I-71 to Columbus than the expected 3 hour trip to Columbus on Amtrak. For me, what a nice leisurely ride in the countryside
And going to a Reds game on the train. Havent done that since 1970s.

Looks like the long awaited corridor train may become a reality.

Railroad Bill. Planning the next Amtrak adventure!!

[D.P. Roberts]

Planning for the Tri-C corridor was allegedly well under way before the stimulus announcement, which makes me wonder how firm those plans were. Personally, I'm not going to believe any of it until I'm actually on a train.

I'm also concerned - as others have mentioned - about how this Tri-C corridor will connect to the rest of the nation. Lots of passengers would want to connect in Cleveland in order to get to Chicago or New York / DC, but as of now that connection has to happen at two or three in the morning. If any Amtrak trains ran through Cleveland during daylight hours I'd be a lot more excited.

As for Columbus - I've heard that the basement of the Convention Center is the most likely location for an Amtrak station. It was allegedly built with "punch outs" in the walls in case anyone wanted to build a train station there again, as it had previously been the site of several other train stations.

[Rob_C]

Good news.

I can see Talgo drooling already.

[Railroad Bill]

Further information reveals the train may have two stops in Cincinnati, one at Sharonville in north suburbs and at Lunken Airport along the river. Sure would like to see it stop at CUT --closer to downtown and the stadium.
Also Cleveland stop would be at W. 150th St rapid station.
Thought there was talk of stopping somewhere in north central Ohio but now that is in question. If we have to drive to Columbus or Cleveland to get on, well, that is not as great an idea and those millions of passengers along the corridor would be limited to the four cities it plans to stop in.
I too, will believe it when I see it. With all the freight traffic that CSX has on the Big Four line, it could be a slow ride between CLE and Columbus.

[ALC_Rail_Writer]

Save the drool Rob, the Talgo option has been discussed and dismissed. They'll likely be using bi-levels, perhaps even tacking on to the existing order.

[Rob_C]

That's a relief!

[AlanB]

Since this was part of the High Speed Stimulus allocations, even though it's technically not high speed, I'm going to move this over to the new High Speed forum.

[ALC_Rail_Writer]

79mph is still faster than the pax trains between CIN and CLE are currently running Alan,

[AlanB]

79mph is still faster than the pax trains between CIN and CLE are currently running Alan,

Agreed.

I wasn't making a judgement, just explaining my reasons for moving it.

[jphjaxfl]

Trains from the 3C's corridor should connect with existing Amtrak trains in both Cleveland and Cincinnati. Even in the last days of Penn Central coach only Columbus-Cleveland and Indianapolis-Cleveland, there was a decent connection with Penn Central Trains to the east. On New Years eve 1970, I traveled from Columbus to Cleveland and changed at Union Terminal to the no name train to Boston. Penn Central still ran a train between Cincinnati and Columbus but it was the former Pennsy's Cincinnati Limited which carried a through coach for Pittsburgh and New York. This train connected with the Columbus-Cleveland train in one direction but not in the other. At the time I was trying to ride as many trains and routes as possible that we knew wouldn't be around after Amtrak Day on May 1, 1971. It will be good to have trains on the Big Four's Cincinnati-Cleveland line again.

[stntylr]

Trains from the 3C's corridor should connect with existing Amtrak trains in both Cleveland and Cincinnati. Even in the last days of Penn Central coach only Columbus-Cleveland and Indianapolis-Cleveland, there was a decent connection with Penn Central Trains to the east. On New Years eve 1970, I traveled from Columbus to Cleveland and changed at Union Terminal to the no name train to Boston. Penn Central still ran a train between Cincinnati and Columbus but it was the former Pennsy's Cincinnati Limited which carried a through coach for Pittsburgh and New York. This train connected with the Columbus-Cleveland train in one direction but not in the other. At the time I was trying to ride as many trains and routes as possible that we knew wouldn't be around after Amtrak Day on May 1, 1971. It will be good to have trains on the Big Four's Cincinnati-Cleveland line again.

The problem is Amtrak only stops in Cleveland in the middle of the night.

[jis]

I think an ideal situation would be to figure out a way to connect up the Empire Corridor with the 3C Corridor by either extending a few Empire Corridor trains to Cleveland or extending a few 3C Corridor trains to Buffalo Depew or some combo thereof. This of course will require extra equipment over and above what will be necessary to run the basic Corridor services, so might take a while.

[battalion51]

Part of the challenge with upgrading existing freight lines that it increases the appraised value of the line, which means higher property taxes. You have to either follow the Florida model and purchase the line from the owner and then do your own thing since it's publicly owned and allow the previous freight owner trackage rights, or create rules that will cap the property values of the line at their current level plus inflation adjustment.

[ALC_Rail_Writer]

Both of which would have drastically raised the cost of the Tri-C project and delayed/derailed its inception.

The best thing IMHO of this project is the cost, a mere 400M to provide pax service along 258 miles of track that is currently unused for said service.

[AAARGH!]

Micah and Railroad Bill:

Let's make a date... We (and anyone else who wants to) should plan on taking the first southbound Tri-C train.

[ALC_Rail_Writer]

Why not Northbound

[DaveKCMO]

Some in Cleveland said it would be much quicker to take I-71 to Columbus than the expected 3 hour trip to Columbus on Amtrak. For me, what a nice leisurely ride in the countryside.

those people would probably still drive even if the train were faster. our twice-daily missouri trains make the KCY-STL trip in 5:40, while driving takes around 4 hours between city centers, and we still get over 150K riders annually between two metros of about 2 million each. ohio's trains will be fine!

[AAARGH!]

Why not Northbound

Fine, you drive me to Cincy and I will take the first one Northbound! I'll wave at you along I-71.

Of course we could just take the CL or LSL to Chicago, and then the Cardinal to Cincy. THEN take the Tri-C back to Cleveland. Hmmmm, come to thnk of it, that's not a bad idea at all!