(The following story by Barry M. Horstman appeared on the Cincinnati Enquirer website on May 29, 2010.)
CINCINNATI, Ohio — In the mid-1800s, Cincinnati guessed wrong about public transportation, betting that water would continue to be the nation’s primary mode when most of the rest of America saw railroads as the future – a choice with impacts still being felt today.
More than a century and a half later, railroads again loom prominently on the city’s horizon, with an ambitious plan for a statewide rail network offering Cincinnati, many believe, a chance to correct that historical mistake – or repeat it.
If Ohio’s proposed 3C rail network achieves proponents’ loftiest ambitions, Cincinnati within several decades could reclaim some of what it lost through its damaging miscalculation in the 19th century.
Aware too late of their mistake, local leaders in the late 1800s built the 336-mile Cincinnati Southern Railway from Queensgate to Chattanooga, Tenn., to cope with diminishing river freight traffic.
While the 141-year-old rail line has long been one of the city’s most valuable assets, generating about $19 million a year in rent, by the time it was completed, the damage had already been done. Chicago, not Cincinnati, became the Midwest’s rail hub – and a world-class city.
The 110- to 150-mph trains envisioned by the 2020s, Cincinnati City Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls says, “could allow us to essentially become a suburb of Chicago” – a prospect she finds exhilarating but one she concedes “may not sit well with some people.”
“The important point is, how we handle 3C and what lies beyond could open doors to some very exciting opportunities for Cincinnati – or close them,” Qualls said.
But while proponents warn that a wrong decision on 3C could relegate Cincinnati and Ohio to backwater status, opponents see the plan as a huge waste of taxpayer money.
The primary reason some local and state officials are so eager to spend the $400 million in federal funds available, Republicans, in particular argue, stems from a misguided perception that it is “free” money from Washington. The question that should be asked, opponents insist, is whether that money, regardless of its source, would be well-spent on 3C. The answer, they believe, is a thundering no.
Empty passenger cars?
The 3C plan, so named because it would link Cincinnati to Columbus and Cleveland – a planned stop in Dayton has prompted some to dub it the 3C & D Line – would be funded from the $8 billion that the Obama administration has targeted for high-speed train and other passenger rail projects nationwide.
The $400 million that Washington awarded Ohio in January, supporters say, is an unparalleled opportunity to restore what initially would be medium-speed passenger rail service to a crucial corridor that has been without it for four decades.
“One hundred percent federal funding for this kind of project will never come along again,” said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, a rail advocacy group. “If we blow this, it’s going to take a lot of effort just to get back to where we are now as other states around us move ahead.”
Many opponents, however, view rail – at least as offered under the 3C plan – not as the future but the past, and have gone so far as to suggest that Ohio reject the $400 million federal check. Arguing that supporters have inflated projected ridership and underestimated costs, they contend the proposal would saddle Ohio with an ongoing multimillion-dollar operational expense for a little-used line.
“These refurbished passenger cars will be empty, and Ohio taxpayers will be left footing the bill,” said state Sen. President Bill Harris, R-Ashland.
Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, meanwhile, has said he believes the $400 million could be better spent on roads, highways and bridges, “which adds to greater productivity in this state.”
Supporters counter that the federal stimulus money cannot be spent for other purposes, adding that if Ohio chooses to forgo the $400 million, other cities or states would be delighted to snatch it.
As the rail debate plays out on a statewide stage, a $25 million study and November’s elections will have much to say about the outcome. The state Controlling Board in April approved the study, funded from the federal award, on a 4-3 party-line vote. Subsequent votes on the board, however, will require a five-vote supermajority, requiring a vote from at least one Republican on the panel – a challenge that could become even more daunting if the GOP wins the governorship.
The study will, among other things, update an Amtrak study that forecast 478,000 annual passengers. Preliminary plans call for three to four daily trains making a six-stop, 6½-hour trip costing about $76 round-trip from Cincinnati to Cleveland – and about half that, in time and cost, between Cincinnati and Columbus.
Opponents dismissively note that is slower and generally costlier than driving, while supporters contend the route will be a success that lays a foundation for faster train service in the future. Infrastructure improvements could allow the start-up maximum 79-mph service along existing tracks to later be upgraded to 110-mph trains.
Ohio Transportation Director Jolene Molitoris, emphasizing that the Amtrak study was “just a start, not the gospel,” says the new feasibility and environmental review will create a “more comprehensive, more accurate” foundation for decision-makers weighing whether to proceed with the 3C plan.
Where’s the station?
In Greater Cincinnati, the debate has been less over whether to proceed than with how to do so – in particular, where temporary 3C stations should be built.
The nearly universal choice for a permanent station is Union Terminal, but that preference pits, at least in the short term, history and romance against timing, financing and logistics.
The landmark 77-year-old Queensgate building, where more than 200 trains once arrived and departed daily but which now houses the Museum Center and an Amtrak station with only three times-a-week service, cannot meet the rapid timetable envisioned for the 3C system, which could start in late 2012.
For Union Terminal to accommodate expanded passenger rail service, extra tracks would be needed to relieve freight train congestion through the Mill Creek, and boarding facilities would have to be significantly expanded – an $80 million project that could take a decade or longer, even under optimistic scenarios.
That has nudged Cincinnati City Hall leaders toward the idea of a temporary station in Bond Hill, on city-owned land near Interstate 75, the Norwood Lateral and Paddock Road. Alternatives near Lunken Airport and just east of Downtown also have been mentioned.
Some Hamilton County officials, however, favor a site in the Fairfax/Wooster Pike area, where a convergence of road and rail arterials could, they argue, accelerate development of the proposed Eastern Corridor commuter rail line from Clermont County to Downtown. City leaders, though, worry that a temporary station in eastern Cincinnati could, compared to the more centrally located Bond Hill, divert time and money from the long-term focus on Union Terminal.
The quickest and least expensive path toward Union Terminal, others suggest, would be to allow a planned 3C stop in Sharonville to serve Greater Cincinnati until the Terminal is ready for a full-scale return.
“Why not invest that money right off the bat on the track improvements and other things you have to do to get to Union Terminal?” said Beau Tuke, head of the Cincinnati chapter of All Aboard Ohio.
Devoting resources to any other temporary station in Greater Cincinnati south of Sharonville, Prendergast adds, “seems like spending money twice for the same purpose.”
Qualls and other city officials, however, see advantages to a Bond Hill station that extend beyond parochialism and civic pride.
“What you eventually want to do is have the downtowns of the major cities on the 3C line connected,” Qualls said. “If you can’t do that right from the start, you should get as close to the downtowns as you can. They’re the employment and economic centers, they’re where people want to go.”