Cleveland Transportation News: The Ohio Hub and The Nashville Connection

For now, the Ohio Hub plan promises to hook us up with high speed rail to places like Detroit and Columbus and Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Ohio is of course not the only state vying for Federal money for high speed train routes. I found this article interesting; it talks about the proposed Atlanta to Chattanooga rail route. They seem to be in the same holding pattern we are in Ohio: they have the money for the environmental study and then plan on being ready to apply for the Federal money when it becomes available.

What makes so much sense to me: once The Hub is in place, we can work on connecting the entire country with viable high speed train service. How can this not help our economy?

Here is another article, this one about light rail in Washington D.C. A Purple Line was proposed to add to DC's Metro system; one comment in the article is that it's harder to get monies for hard rail lines but light rail is easier......they are still not sure the Purple Line will move ahead. Read it for yourself...I plan on ferreting out all the articles I can find on a continual basis so we can see what others are doing in addition to our own progress on the Three C Corridor Plan.

I hate when this happens, but for some reason The Post article won't link here...they may be working on a new page location for it on their site. I'll check back in the morning and see if it has landed somewhere else on the site. Peace Out - 3C

Okay, here is an excerpt, in case the article enters the Bermuda Triangle:

"....The Federal Transit Administration, which helped sink plans for a tunnel through Tysons Corner and is demanding further cost accounting for the proposed Metro line through Dulles International Airport, will likewise dictate what any new transit line through suburban Maryland would look like and when -- or whether -- there will be money to build it.
"It's the driving force behind the planning process," Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said of the competition for federal money. "You can have the best conceived transit project in the world, and it's not going forward if it doesn't qualify for federal funding."
Toward that end, Porcari delayed consideration of the Purple Line for another year after deciding that the rider estimates were too crude to impress the federal officials in charge of doling out critical funding. Analysts are now recalculating ridership predictions using more sophisticated forecasting models.
Concerns about federal guidelines also led local officials to quickly rule out heavy rail -- the type of trains used on Metro -- in favor of slower, but far cheaper, light-rail trains or express buses. State officials have also rejected calls to run the line under the popular Capital Crescent Trail, saying it would be too expensive without saving travel time -- another effort to satisfy federal criteria.
The concessions show just how focused planners are on pleasing officials at the federal agency. ..." (written by Katherine Shaver and Amy Gardner of The Post)