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OHIO RAIL

DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                              Contact: Stu Nicholson

Date: July 14, 2005                                                                                (614) 644-0513 

 

Proposal to Sell Panhandle Rail Line

To Get Public Hearing

Grant for Coshocton Ethanol Plant

Rail Infrastructure Also Approved

 

(Columbus) – Ohio Rail Development Commissioners received a staff recommendation on Thursday at their July meeting to sell the 161 mile “Panhandle Line” between Columbus and Mingo Junction, Ohio on the Ohio River.  Commissioners took the following actions:

 

•                                 Decided to discuss the staff report in depth at the ORDC Commissioner’s Retreat on August 30th.

•                                 Have their regular September Commission meeting serve as a public hearing on the proposed sale.  ORDC staff has suggested holding that meeting in Coshocton to accommodate members of the public representing communities served by the Panhandle Line.  A tentative date of September 15th was suggested.

 

 

ORDC staff is recommending the track and fixtures be sold, but with the State of Ohio retaining ownership of the right of way to better address the concerns of communities along the line, such as access to shippers by other railroads and for public utilities.  It would also preserve the right of way for possible future high-speed passenger rail service between Columbus and Pittsburgh under ORDC’s Ohio Hub Plan.

 

The staff recommendation is to sell the line to the Ohio Central Railroad.  An unsolicited bid to buy the line has also been made by the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad (W&LE).  ORDC Executive Director James Seney told Commissioners that he felt the W&LE’s offer should be rejected, because it would “fragment the rail system by separating the branch lines that are owned and operated by the Ohio Central Railroad from the spine of the system... the Panhandle Line.”

 

Representatives of both the Ohio Central and the Wheeling and Lake Erie railroads attended the Commission meeting and reiterated their interest in the rail line.

 

The Panhandle Line was formerly owned by Consolidated Rail Corporation, better known as Conrail, until 1992 when the State of Ohio stepped in to purchase the line and prevent the abandonment of key segments of the line.  Such an abandonment would have done serious economic harm to shippers and communities along the rail line.

 

Since then, the rail line has been operated by the Ohio Central Railroad, which also owns and operates several branch railroad lines that connect to the state-owned Panhandle Line.  With assistance from ORDC, the Ohio Central Railroad has significantly upgraded the tracks, signals and service along the line, as well as help to attract new shippers and increased business from existing shippers.   Car loadings of freight have increased from barely 10,000 a year in 1992 to over 25,000 in 2004.

 

The staff report on the proposed sale is available on the ORDC website at www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/.  Printed copies of the report and all related documents are available upon request, including a record of public input during the three-year staff study.

 

“It is important that we show ORDC has done and continues to do all it can to seek and obtain public input in this process,” says ORDC Executive Director Seney.  “This rail line is vital to the economic well-being and mobility of Eastern and Southeast Ohio, as well as providing the last remaining rail right of way between Columbus and Pittsburgh. Whether Commissioners decide to sell the line or not, the process cannot be taken lightly when it comes to the opinions of the communities and shippers along the Panhandle Line.”

 

*****

 

In other actions by Commissioners, a $250,000 grant was approved to assist development of  rail infrastructure to support the planned Coshocton  Ethanol Plant, to be built in Tuscarawas County.  The plant will create 41 new jobs and produce an estimated 50 to 70 million gallons of ethanol fuel annually from an expected 6,000 carloads of corn a year that will be carried by rail into the plant. At least 30 percent of that corn will come from local Ohio farms.  Besides the production 2,000 annual carloads of ethanol, the plant is also expected to generate 1,200 carloads of leftover “distillers grain”, which can be used as cattle feed.

 

The site for the Coshocton Ethanol Plant is also served by the Panhandle Line, and is one of several ethanol-producing facilities being built or  planned for Ohio.

 

Commissioners also received a staff report on the completion of the sale of the state-owned Ohio Southern Railroad to its current operator, the Ohio Central Railroad.  The sale completes a loan agreement between ORDC and the railroad, based upon successful rehabilitation and operation of the line and repayment of the loan.  The line runs from the state-owned Panhandle Line south through Zanesville (Muskingum County) and into Perry County and largely serves two recently opened coal mines. The Commission approved the sale in 1999.

 

 

(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/ )