Some of my readers who know me know that I'm a strong supporter of increasing rail travel in the US and better connecting the MidWest to the remainder of the nation's main rail lines including the Empire Builder, Lakeshore Limited, Silver Service & Capitol Limited. I have an appreciation for the European model of rail transit and see a high value in being able to increase one's productivity while traveling instead of "wasting" time by acting as a steering wheel holder.
Recently, a number of blogs including ColumbusUnderground.com's Transit blog and XingColumbus have been publishing articles about both the 3C rail (connecting Cincinnati to Columbus to Cleveland) and a proposed network of 220mph bullet trains in the MidWest aiming to connect a large portion of the US population to a major rail hub in Chicago in less than a 3hr journey from a given point to Chicago (e.g. Cincinnati to Indianapolis to Chicago is projected as a 2hr journey).
Many of the recent reports these bloggers are referencing come from a number of organizations including The Midwest High Speed Rail Association, The Ohio Rail Development Commission & The Ohio Public Interest Research Group (a non-partisan, not-for-profit advocacy group).
Alright, with all of the references cited and out of the way, let's get started on the commentary.
At present, The US Federal Government has allocated $400Million to study the feasibility, conduct environmental impact studies & lay out the preliminary designs of rail transport in Ohio, predominantly along the 3C corridor. Some recent numbers cited by XingColumbus indicate an average speed of 51MPH along the entire 3C line (255Mi) from Cleveland to Columbus to Dayton to Cincinnati. Bear in mind that this is merely the conventional speed rail corridor - not the proposed bullet trains. This conventional speed rail corridor is merely an interim step in the process of connecting the MidWest, nay, the nation, through a massive bullet train network.
When we turn to OhioPIRG's studies, they largely piggyback and support the Midwest High Speed Rail Association (which draws quite a bit of information from the IlliniosPIRG) we see that the impact of a 220MPH bullet train network is huge. First, I'd suggest that you look at this map and the associated projected numbers that Midwest Highspeed Rail Association advertises in it's vision. And combine that with some of the numbers ColumbusUnderground reports are coming from OhioPIRG.
I have a pretty optimistic vision for rail travel, but these numbers go far beyond anything I would have ever imagined! Additionally, most surveys that have been conducted in Ohio indicate that the majority of Ohioans are in favor of increasing rail transit options in the State and connecting us to the remainder of the nation.
For more information, you can take a look at the following articles (some are cited above in the in text links):
http://www.columbusunderground.com/report-high-speed-rail-will-boost-economy-in-ohio
http://www.ohiopirg.org/home/reports/report-archives/more-reports/more-reports/connecting-the-midwest-how-a-faster-passenger-rail-network-could-speed-travel-and-boost-the-economy
http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/3c-rail-gets-faster/
http://www.midwesthsr.org/integrated-railroad-network
Now that you've had a chance to look through some of these, what do you think about rail transit in both Ohio & the MidWest as a whole? As always, post your thoughts below and don't forget to follow this blog and pass it on to your friends! Until next time, take care.
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