Ohio 3-C passenger rail plan creates sharp divide between Strickland, Kasich

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Although it's been more than three months since a contentious meeting of the Ohio Controlling Board gave Gov. Ted Strickland and his transportation department leaders the go-ahead to pursue a $25 million contract they said would answer the many questions Ohio Republican leaders and critics of passenger rail have posed about whether to pursue it or not, no contract has been entered into to date.

ODOT negotiating with FRA

One reason for the long delay, according to a spokesman for Ohio's transportation department (ODOT), is that before the agency can expend up to $25 million on the next round of non-capital work, including final environmental study, engineering and detailed design work on the 3C "Quick Start" Passenger Rail program, it needs approval by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for the work plan it submitted last week.

But based on the unequivocal comments John Kasich, the GOP candidate running to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, made yesterday at a candidate forum convened by six Ohio economic and development associations, the plan to link Ohio's three largest cities via rails will never make it out of his station, should be become Ohio's next governor.

Kasich calls 3-C 'white elephant'

According to Kasich, a former Central Ohio congressman running virtually neck and neck with Strickland, who is entering his fourth year as state CEO and who hopes Ohio voters will rehire him despite a lagging economy, the project is unwanted, unneeded and unaffordable.

"I don't support a 39 mph train, OK? It's not going to happen if I'm governor, OK?" Kasich said to reporters gathered for the occasion, according to published reports. "If you want the train, I hope you can get over that and vote for me anyway. But you're not going to get that train. It's a white elephant, we can't afford it, we can't pay for it. And who's riding it?"     

In the Statement of Work document ODOT and its rail development arm, the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC), sent the FRA recently, the $400 million in federal stimulus funds the FRA awarded it to push the 3-C rail project will be spent to "demonstrate how freight and passenger trains can work safely and efficiently together, assistance in preparing for negotiations with the host freight railroads, and assistance in the competitive selection process for determining an operator and specifications for rail cars."

Following Kasich's presentation at the development confab was one from Strickland running mate Judge Yvette McGee Brown.

Brown blames media

Brown, whose primary role on the Democratic ticket is to champion an urban agenda designed to revitalize the many Ohio cities who have suffered from population shrinkage and job losses, blamed the media for reporting the train will average just 39-mph on a trip from Cleveland to Columbus, according to Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Reginald Fields. That speed, not a fabrication by the media at all but a statement of fact by Ohio rail officials themselves, is a non-starter to many Ohioans like Kasich and others, who say personal mobility - like cars - are far faster and provide much-needed transportation to the user once they arrive at their destination. This recognizes the fact that Ohio's supporting transportation systems - buses, commuter rail, etc. - in the 3-C cities of Cleveland, Columbus and Cleveland, with other stops in between like Dayton - leave much to be desired for train travelers and who are themselves struggling with on-going operating challenges, that in nearly all Ohio cities that have them have forced reductions in routes or operating personnel or triggered a raise in fares to compensate for declining revenues and increased costs.

"I disagree strongly with that," Brown said in published reports. She added, "I mean, we are the largest, most densely populated area in the country to not have passenger rail...We will have to figure out how to pay for it. But right now all of the stories have been hypotheticals."

Some 3-C facts

What is not a hypothetical is that the 3-C rail corridor plan is approximately 256-miles in length, and a rider boarding a train in Cincinnati, destined for Cleveland, will have a nearly seven hour ride. And based on proposed train schedules suggested by ODOT's own consultants, that rider could not return to Cincinnati in the same day. They might be able to travel at least to Columbus, a mid-way point between end destinations where a maintenance facility could be located. But either way, the rider will incur additional expenses for overnight lodging, meals and transportation to and from a train station or boarding platform. When these costs are added to proposed ticket prices, they become a disincentive to an individual or family of four to take the train.

And with the announcement of the Chevy Volt, a hybrid car for which some parts will be manufactured in Ohio, and with the prospect that cars of the future will be cheaper, faster, quieter, safer and far more fuel efficient that the cars of today, some critics wonder why Ohio would want to take 20-30 years - and spend over a $1 billion dollars in Ohio funds - to build a train system based on 19th century technology that causes headaches galore for freight railroads, a logistical transportation system Ohio excels in?  

The big financial problem Kasich pointed to that Brown dismissed out of hand, is the projected shortfall in yearly operating funds of at least $17 million.

With Ohio leaders, either Strickland or Kasich in the Governor's Mansion and a new General Assembly that could return control of the Ohio House to Republican control after only a term in the hands of Democrats, looking at maybe a $8 billion plus budget deficit, critics of the plan question where the state will find such a large operating surplus at a time when harsh cuts seem the only option leaders have, given the strongly planted idea that taxes cannot be raised at a time when Ohio is in such dire economic straights.

ODOT and ORDC officials have been scouring Ohio's budget for funds to narrow the operating subsidy gap for many months. But to date, they cannot offer a specific solution, and instead point to revenue from advertising or selling Ohio products like wine on the train.

As one Republican leader told me last week at Opening Day ceremonies for the 157th Ohio State Fair about Ohio's looming situation and what state leaders are doing about it, "The earthquake has happened, the tsunami is coming, and we're having drinks on the beach."

While Strickland, Brown, state rail officials and the cadre of special interests groups and their supporters say the 3-C will trigger the creation of thousands of jobs, using a sea of Ohio-based manufacturers who want to ride the rails of federal stimulus funds that will pay for restarting America's love of passenger rail, experts watching it all who are familiar with the problems freight railroads, say the introduction of passenger trains on the nation's freight rail network will only harm a system that is already under pressure from too little capacity and a growing demand.

Will passenger trains ruin freight rail systems?

Last week, The Economist Magazine featured an article asking the question of can America's system of rail freight, the best in the world, be ruined by high-speed passenger trains? The magazine, respected around the world, reported that even America's limited ambition for passenger rail "risks messing up the successful freight railways."

Owners of the nation's freight rails, the article said, "worry that the [passenger rail] plans will demand expensive train-control technology that freight traffic could do without. They fear a reduction in the capacity available to freight. Most of all they fret that the spending of federal money on upgrading their tracks will lead the Federal Railroad Administration, the industry watchdog, to impose tough conditions on them and, in effect, to reintroduce regulation of their operations."

But Ohio's ability to move forward with study work for the 3-C cannot happen until the FRA comes to an agreement with state officials.

"This agreement defines the overarching tasks and work to be accomplished by ODOT and ORDC (with assistance from the competitively-selected consultant team) and authorizes the reimbursement of federal funds from FRA to ODOT," ODOT spokesman Scott Varner told me via email. "Once that Cooperative Agreement is in place - which should be in August - ODOT will sign contracts with Parsons Brinkerhoff and CH2MHill," he wrote, adding, "ODOT is committed to a transparent and accountable process for investing these stimulus funds.. and we are following that step-by-step process."

A survey done by Ohio's major newspapers on how the passenger train proposal was being digested by Ohioans, a survey that received little coverage by the mainstream media, showed a majority of Ohioans them lining up behind Kasich's view, that it's a "white elephant" the state cannot afford.

3-C could sway voters in fall

Whether the 3-C project plays any measurable role in the race for governor this year is a matter of speculation. What isn't a matter of speculation, though, is the speed of the train - slow by any standard but exceedingly so when compared to high-speed train proposals from California and Florida, the two big winners in FRA funding, where trains one day a decade from now may reach speeds of 220-mph or more - and the travel time from one Ohio city to another.

With Amtrak, the nation's public passenger rail system, operating Ohio's 3-C line, and its poor on-time record, and train sets, old or new in short supply if any can be had in the near term at all, the wisdom of pursuing a money-losing business that Ohio taxpayers would be forced to fund for decades to come could play a role in whether voters in November board the Kasich Express or the Strickland Dreamliner.

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