(The Cleveland Plain Dealer posted the following article on its website on August 7.)
CLEVELAND — Here’s a case to be made that the railroads built this nation, and the nation is now in a position to rebuild the railroads.
Transportation in the 19th century was a lot simpler when the rail barons made cheap land west of the Mississippi available to immigrants. The choices then were foot, horseback or rail.
Now, with many more choices, rail is re-acquiring some of its gloss.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission continues to keep the issue alive here. Recent discussions about commuter service between Lorain and Cleveland give it local currency, alongside the expansion of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway, and the proliferation of short-line freight service.
Whatever else it may be, it is no longer an academic subject.
Richard Enty, a senior planner with RTA, said New Mexico, Utah, Maine and Florida are all planning, building or running some form of lo cal rail service.
But Ohio is substantially behind the trend. Cleveland is the only Ohio city with any sort of rail transit service, Enty said.
It is a small example but a potent one. Of the 57 million who rode some form of RTA last year, only 15 percent used the rapid. Yet those self-propelled rail cars are the one RTA mode that is least affected by weather and least vulnerable to traffic snarls.
U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette, a strong advocate for rail service and supporter of Amtrak, has said that trips under 400 miles are the future of passenger service. If a train ran from Cleveland to Columbus, he said, many would never make that drive again.
That drive’s blend of blind spots, sustained tedium and required alertness has been used to illustrate the challenges that air traffic controllers face. Ohio has an advantage over Greater Cleveland. RTA has tried over the years to expand rail service, but politics and penury have chilled the ambition. Ohio has the track – 6,000 miles of it.
Freight service is nearing capacity everywhere – illustrating the strength and durability of rail service, but also creating challenges for expanded service in the state.
Travel through Illinois by rail and you can see Amtrak, BNSF freight trains and Metra commuter service sharing the rails. And that state is in the midst of large-scale upgrading of the rail system that flows in and out of Chicago.
Terrence Sheridan, a local sage and poet without portfolio, once observed that Cleveland is just Chicago with narrower shoulders. The rail renaissance there gives us new reason to consider that.