The Ohio Hub was a high-speed railway project proposed in the 2000s decade by the Ohio Department of Transportation aimed at revitalizing passenger rail service in the Ohio region. [1] [2] The plan was awarded funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, but Governor John Kasich refused to use the funds for the project and the funds were reclaimed by the federal government. Passage of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act raised the possibility of new funding for a similar project.
Passenger service between Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland ended on May 1, 1971, when the Ohio State Limited was discontinued upon the assumption of Penn Central Transportation's passenger service by Amtrak. [3]
Upon completion, the transit system would have been composed of 860 mi (1,380 km) of track serving 32 stations. It would connect four states along with southern Ontario, consisting of 11 major metropolitan areas and 22 million people. [4] The system's goal was to "expand the capacity of the transportation system by improving the railroads for both freight and passenger trains." [5]
As of the mid-2000s, the initial startup cost was projected to be in the $500 million range. This did not include the cost of trains or the preparations needed for high-speed service. Two high-speed train systems were being explored. The first, a 79-mile-per-hour (127 km/h) system, was expected to cost $2.7 billion, or $3.5 million per mile. The second option, a 110-mile-per-hour (180 km/h) higher-speed system was estimated to cost $3.32 billion, or $4.5 million per mile. [2]
The project's hub was proposed to be based at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (the state's largest and busiest airport) with a second Cleveland location near downtown Cleveland, and to provide service to adjacent cities in both the state of Ohio and the Ohio Region. Three proposals were made for service – a single line system from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and two networked systems with multiple corridors providing service from Cleveland to various cities around the Ohio Region. Each corridor would branch out from Cleveland, and serve from four to nine stations, as well as connections to other regional rail services. Additional lines were proposed to connect the planned corridors with each other throughout the state, as well as to add more stations between major cities. [5]
The full Ohio & Lake Erie Regional Rail proposal would provide service to four states plus Canada through four corridors originating in Cleveland. An additional network was proposed with three additional lines (seven lines total), however was still under development. The proposal featured the following four corridors:
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On January 28, 2010, the White House announced that Ohio would receive $400 million of its request through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This allowed for passenger rail service to return specifically on the 3C corridor. [6] The 3C Corridor could provide service from Cleveland to Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati, a distance of 255 miles (410 km). The service was predicted to carry around 478,000 people a year, using a subsidy of $17 million from the state government. [7]
The proposed corridor, however, attracted opposition from Republican members of the state board in charge of the project, as the proposed six-hour travel time and 39 mph (63 km/h) average speed led the project to be dubbed "snail rail". Then-governor and rail proponent Ted Strickland said in April 2010 that the average speed could be increased to 46 mph (74 km/h), but Republicans were still not sold on it. [8]
On September 24, 2010, the Federal Railroad Administration authorized the state to spend $15 million of the stimulus money for the purposes of determining specifications and completing studies regarding the corridor. Also on the 24th, the state released a new schedule for the service, which would see three daily round trips being operated, taking slightly over five hours each way, an hour and a half faster than previous estimates. [7]
Following the 2010 gubernatorial elections in Ohio, the newly elected governor John Kasich (Republican) began the process of shutting down the project and returning the money to the federal government. This money would be redistributed to other applicants. In a press conference, Kasich said that "[t]hat train is dead. I said it during the campaign. It is dead. Passenger rail is not in Ohio’s future." [9] [10]
On December 9, 2010, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that the federal government had revoked the funding for the 3C corridor, which would be redirected to high-speed rail projects in other states. [11] The $400 million was reclaimed by the White House, following repeated promises by Governor John Kasich to cancel the project. He attempted to get permission to use the funds on other transportation related projects, but this was rejected by the White House. [8] The money reclaimed was divided among several other states, including California, New York and Florida. [12]
As of 2015, funding for the Ohio Hub project remained on hold, though it has never been officially canceled.
Plans were restarted around 2020 as Amtrak sought to expand and create new medium-distance rail services, though not as high-speed rail. [13] In May 2021 further plans were presented to Columbus officials regarding the proposed service, which is expected to commence service by 2035. [14]
By 2020, Amtrak was proposing to substantially increase rail service through the state. [13] The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act raised the possibility of new funding for new and increased service in Ohio. [15] [16]
In December 2023, three Ohio routes were accepted into the Federal Railroad Administration's Corridor Identification and Development Program, a mechanism for developing new train routes under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Each of these corridors are granted $500,000 toward engineering and feasibility studies and are prioritized for future federal funding: [17]
Lakefront Station in Cleveland would be unable to accommodate this increase in service, which is why a group by the name of All Aboard Ohio is pushing for the restoration of rail service at Cleveland Union Terminal. [18]
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words America and track.
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C. in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC closely parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day, it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.
The Pennsylvanian is a 444-mile (715 km) daily daytime Amtrak train running between New York City and Pittsburgh via Philadelphia. The trains travel across the Appalachian Mountains, through Pennsylvania's capital Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, suburban and central Philadelphia, and New Jersey en route to New York. The entire train ride takes about 9 hours total: 1.5 hours between New York and Philadelphia, 2 hours between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, and 5.5 hours between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
The Chicago Hub Network is a collection of proposed fast conventional and high-speed rail lines in the Midwestern United States including 3,000 miles (5,000 km) of track. Since the 1990s, there have been multiple proposals to build a network from Chicago to destinations such as Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Louisville. In addition, the rail lines from the Chicago hub would connect through to cities in Canada. Eastern routes from Chicago would also blend into the Ohio Hub network. In addition to providing better connections between Midwestern cities, the projects are intended to reduce or eliminate the operating subsidies that American passenger train routes currently require.
Newark Liberty International Airport Station is a railroad hub on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in Newark, New Jersey. The station provides access to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) via the AirTrain Newark monorail which connects the station to the airport's terminals and parking areas. The station is served by New Jersey Transit's (NJT) Northeast Corridor Line and North Jersey Coast Line and Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Keystone Service trains.
The Southeast Corridor (SEC) is a proposed passenger rail transportation project in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States to extend high-speed passenger rail services from the current southern terminus of the Northeast Corridor in Washington, D.C.. Routes would extend south via Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, with a spur to Norfolk in Virginia's Hampton Roads region; the mainline would continue south to Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Since the corridor was first established in 1992, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has extended it further to Atlanta, Georgia and Macon, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Birmingham, Alabama.
Springfield Union Station is a train and bus station in the Metro Center area of Springfield, Massachusetts. Constructed in 1926, Springfield Union Station is the fifth-busiest Amtrak station in the Commonwealth, and the busiest outside of Greater Boston.
Schuylkill River Passenger Rail is a proposed passenger train service along the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania, with intermediate stops in Norristown, King of Prussia, Phoenixville, and Pottstown.
Plans for high-speed rail in the United States date back to the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965. Various state and federal proposals have followed. Despite being one of the world's first countries to get high-speed trains, it failed to spread. Definitions of what constitutes high-speed rail vary, including a range of speeds over 110 mph (180 km/h) and dedicated rail lines. Inter-city rail with top speeds between 90 and 125 mph is sometimes referred to in the United States as higher-speed rail.
High-speed rail in New York has been a topic that is consistently discussed among legislators, political leaders and in particular, several past governors since the 1990s, but thus far little progress has been made. In his campaign speeches prior to his defeat by Governor George Pataki in 1994, Mario Cuomo promised to bring high speed (maglev) rail up the Hudson Valley and along the Catskill Mountains route. It was not a priority for the subsequent administration.
Columbus Union Station was an intercity train station in Downtown Columbus, Ohio, near The Short North neighborhood. The station and its predecessors served railroad passengers in Columbus from 1851 until April 28, 1977.
The Wolverine is a higher-speed passenger train service operated by Amtrak as part of its Michigan Services. The 304-mile (489 km) line provides three daily round-trips between Chicago and Pontiac, Michigan, via Ann Arbor and Detroit. It carries a heritage train name descended from the New York Central.
Union Station is an Amtrak railroad station and mixed-use commercial building in downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, United States. It is served by the Lake Shore Limited route, which provides daily passenger service between Chicago and New York City or Boston; Erie is the train's only stop in Pennsylvania. The station's ground floor has been redeveloped into commercial spaces, including The Brewerie at Union Station, a brewpub. The building itself is privately owned by the global logistics and freight management company Logistics Plus and serves as its headquarters.
The Northern Lights Express (NLX) is a planned higher-speed rail service that would run 155 miles (249 km) between Minneapolis and Duluth primarily in the U.S. state of Minnesota. A portion of the proposed line would run through neighboring Wisconsin to serve Duluth's "Twin Port" of Superior. Plans are to upgrade an existing BNSF Railway freight line to allow trains to travel at up to 90 miles per hour (145 km/h). The train service is said to provide an alternative to traveling Interstate 35 between Duluth and the Twin Cities or to other destinations along the line such as the casino in Hinckley.
The Lake Cities was a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois and Toledo, Ohio via Detroit, Michigan. It operated from 1980 until 2004, when it was folded into the Wolverine. It replaced the St. Clair, a Chicago–Detroit train which operated in tandem with the Wolverine. The extension to Toledo gave travelers in Michigan the opportunity to connect with eastbound trains such as the Lake Shore Limited without backtracking to Chicago. Amtrak re-routed the train from Toledo to Pontiac, Michigan in 1995.
Higher-speed rail (HrSR), also known as high-performance rail, higher-performance rail, semi-high-speed rail or almost-high-speed rail, is the jargon used to describe inter-city passenger rail services that have top speeds of more than conventional rail but are not high enough to be called high-speed rail services. The term is also used by planners to identify the incremental rail improvements to increase train speeds and reduce travel time as alternatives to larger efforts to create or expand the high-speed rail networks.
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NC By Train is a brand name used by the Rail Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for two state-supported Amtrak routes operating in the U.S. state of North Carolina–the Carolinian and the Piedmont.
Public transit has taken numerous forms in Columbus, the largest city and capital of Ohio. Transit has variously used passenger trains, horsecars, streetcars, interurbans, trolley coaches, and buses. Current service is through the Central Ohio Transit Authority's bus system, numerous intercity bus companies, and through bikeshare, rideshare, and electric scooter services.