TOLEDO, Ohio — Pursuits of renovation and development for railway systems in Ohio have taken a major step forward.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration selected four routes as priorities for expansion of Amtrak's rails, one of which includes Toledo. This effort in Ohio comes with a $500,000 planning funds grant from the FRA for the following corridors:
- Cleveland-Toledo-Detroit
- Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati (also known as the 3C+D corridor)
- Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus-Pittsburgh, the Midwest Connect corridor via Lima, Kenton, Marysville, Columbus, Newark, Coshocton, Newcomerstown, Uhrichsville, and Steubenville in Ohio
- Daily Cardinal Service, increasing service frequency from three days per week to daily on Amtrak’s current service to Cincinnati between New York City, Washington, DC and Chicago, IL via the States of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois
Sandy Spang, the president of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, believes the expansion could position Toledo as a hub for future connections.
The funding from the FRA will help conduct a detailed study to pinpoint the necessary changes for existing railways and the viability of new rails.
Spang said reaching stage one of this process is a win for Ohio.
"This is the first of three parts of the corridor ID program. It's the planning part and we were excited to learn that the Cleveland to Toledo to Detroit to Chicago route had been approved for this planning stage of the grant," Spang said.
In his announcement Tuesday, Brown said the four key routes in Ohio that are now an expansion priority were well overdue for the study.
"We've neglected for two generations now rail travel in this country, except on the East Coast which too often gets its way," he said. "My goal is not just Ohio getting its fair share but Ohio getting more than its fair share."
Community feedback will be requested through the planning process, but Spang said you should not expect to see the final expansion results overnight.
"We could see improvements to that possibly, even improvements to our train station here sooner because those are already existing and they are already in service but then when we talk about creating an entirely new route from Toledo to Detroit; that could take longer," she said.