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http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Stu Nicholson
Date: September 7, 2005 (614)644-0513
“Build It Now!”
New Report:
Public Says Ohio Needs Better Passenger & Freight Rail For Greater
Mobility, Economic & Job Development
(Columbus)
--- Even before gasoline started pumping at better than $3 per gallon, Ohioans
were making their voices heard loud and clear that they want more and better
options to travel and ship by rail. A
new report just released by the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) underscores
that public desire.
The
report details the results of a series of statewide public meetings held by
ORDC and with the help of local metropolitan planning organizations over the
past year. The report shows overwhelming
support for the statewide rail plan detailed in ORDC’s Ohio & Lake Erie
Regional Rail / Ohio Hub Plan.
The report can be accessed at the ORDC
website: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/
“The
public not only wants the option of having access to passenger rail for short
to medium distance business and pleasure travel, “says ORDC Executive Director
Jim Seney, “but they understand totally that investing in redeveloping and
expanding Ohio’s overall rail system not only enables passenger rail but also
that greatly expanding the capacity for freight will help attract and grow both
economic development and jobs.”
Seney
says the strongest message from these public meetings was a strong sense of
urgency about the need to advance the Ohio Hub Plan from the study stage to
reality. One suburban Cleveland Mayor
put it bluntly, “This is the answer for Ohio’s Rust Belt.” A Southwest Ohio County Engineer said, “We’re
in a crisis right now. We need to be building this.”
Similar
comments were heard all over the state: a clear recognition by a cross-section
of business, government and community leaders and the general public that the
Ohio Hub Plan is not only needed, but needs to be implemented, according to Seney.
The good
news, according to Seney, is that this need is being recognized at the federal
level for the first time. Legislation
that would establish a federal funding and development program is moving
through both houses of Congress. Senator
Mike DeWine (R-OH) has recently cosponsored Senate Bill 1516, the Passenger
Rail Investment and Improvement Act, which was introduced by Sen. Trent Lott
(R-MISS). Meanwhile, Congressman Steve
LaTourette is co-sponsoring HR 1631, which has very similar aims to the Senate
bill. Though the bills have some
differences, Seney says he has told staff for both Senator DeWine and
Congressman LaTourette that this legislation is “on the right track.”
(The Ohio
Rail Development Commission is an independent agency operating within the Ohio
Department of Transportation. ORDC is
responsible for economic development through the improvement and expansion of
passenger and freight rail service, railroad grade crossing safety and rail
travel & tourism issues. For more information about what ORDC does for
Ohio, visit our website at http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/ )