General
3-C Passenger Rail
Gov. Ted Strickland says the nation’s passenger rail operator should take a look at restoring lines to Ohio cities that have been without them for decades.
Strickland asks Amtrak in a letter to evaluate how practical it would be to restore passenger rail to the line connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, with stops in some of the other cities along the route.
According to an announcement today, the governor wants Amtrak to work with the Ohio Rail Development Commission on the study. He says adding passenger service would help Ohio’s cities create jobs and attract business.
Passenger lines once were a major transportation source in Ohio but fell out of favor with the rise in air travel and the opening of interstate highways.
I’m not anti-rail, but I am pro-logic
Logic #1 - If Amtrak could make money on this line, it would be up and running.
Logic #2 - OK since Amtrak can’t make money anywhere, no one else seems to think it’s profitable either.
Logic #3 - Normal rail speed is not significantly faster than Highway speeds. I can drive to Cleveland from Cincinnati in four hours. Why would I choose another option that has me:
-driving to a train depot
-waiting on the train schedule
-hailing a taxi if my destination wasn’t in walking distance of the destination depot?
Logic #4 - High speed rail and rising fuel costs may overcome these obstacles, but with a significant upfront investment. Again, if this was a sure moneymaker, some business would be pestering Columbus to let them do it. They aren’t so draw your own conclusions.
All that being said, I think it would be nice to have a TGV style high speed rail network in the USA. Let’s just make sure we run the cost/benefit analysis first.
Discussion
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Hmm.. lets see where that works.
Germany: Population Density works out to 596 people/sq mi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany
Japan: Population Density works out to 872 people /sq mi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan
New Jersey: Population Density works out to 438 people / sq mi (HIGHEST in the US).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_jersey
Ohio: Pop Density of 277 people per square mile.
Uh, the Germans are not happy with the Bundesbahn (German Railroad); ticket prices have soared, the railroad is using tax dollars to agitate for more money rather than autobahn building/repairs, and they are also funding folks to agitate for speed limits on the autobahn.
My Point: If mass transit is not working with the population density over there, what hope do we have of making it work here?
xoxo
Dave;
I predict that within the year Jon Husted will team up with Strickland and creating a solar monorail system linking Toledo to Columbus, and Robert C Byrd will be among the first to ride with Mickey Mouse.
The most innovative political team Ohio has ever known is the Strickland/Husted innovation team. Without any business experience these two star fleet business want-a-bees will make sure lots of taxpayers’ wages are spent on the most useless of ideas.
Amtrak Logic…
Looking at the logic of reinstating Amtrak travel through Ohio…….