Ohio Eyes Highway Ads To Pay For Passenger Rail
Published: July 17, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio—The $10 million that Ohio needs to operate a passenger train service linking its major cities would come from fees that restaurants, hotels and gas stations pay to advertise on blue highway exit signs, according to a preliminary proposal filed with the Federal Rail Administration.
Annual income from Ohio’s highway advertising program would help operate Amtrak trains connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, the pre-application filed by the Ohio Rail Development Commission says.
About 6 million people live along the 250-mile route from Cleveland to Cincinnati, making it one of the most densely populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest.
The pre-application is the first step taken by Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration to secure as much as $400 million in federal stimulus money to buy railcars, build stations and make necessary upgrades on existing freight tracks so that passenger trains traveling up to 79 mph can start running in 2011.
The document also outlines for the first time how Ohio would pay to operate the startup service, estimated at $10 million a year. Ohio’s constitution prohibits revenue from the state’s 28-cent per gallon gasoline tax from being used on anything other than highway projects.
The train’s operating costs for the first three years would be covered by a federal fund for projects that reduce highway traffic and improve air quality, said Scott Varner, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Transportation. Revenue from highway advertising would pick up the costs after that, he said.
Ohio renegotiated its contract with a private company that maintains the signs so that the state would get a slice of the ad revenue, beginning this year, Varner said. The state also will continue looking at other funding options, he said.
President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic recovery package, signed in February, sets aside $8 billion for passenger rail projects in the U.S., something Obama sees as a down payment for a future high-speed network. The first round of funding is expected to be announced this summer. High-speed rail plans in California and the Midwest figure to be front runners.
Ohio’s formal application will be filed in September, shortly after Amtrak completes a study on ridership forecasts, revenue and station locations.
Ohio also is seeking $17 million in stimulus money to pay for an environmental study on boosting trains to 110 mph from Cleveland to Cincinnati and on six other routes, including Cleveland to Pittsburgh, Columbus to Chicago, and Cleveland to Toronto.
The only U.S. rail service that meets the Federal Railroad Administration’s 110 mph threshold to qualify as high-speed rail is Amtrak’s 9-year-old Acela Express route connecting Boston to Washington, D.C.
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Reader Reactions
http://fastlane.dot.gov/2009/07/highspeed-and-intercity-passenger-rail-grants-draw-278-preapplications-from-40-states-.html
Let’s see a need first. There’s bus service available that’s almost as fast as a train. I can ride to Cleveland and back for $37.60, with a total travel time of five to six hours.
That’s using a system that not only pays its own way, but makes a profit. If demand for service is exceeding capacity, they can buy more buses.
I think Greyhound should prove to be hopelessy swamped and utterly unable to meet the demand for inter-city surface travel before we commit hundreds of millions of dollars to set up a competing system that will require ongoing tax subsidies for eternity.
First of all, I always find it interesting that people with your viewpoint constantly resort to name-calling, while the rest of us have an intelligent discussion.
Second, highways only exist because of a huge initial investment, followed by ongoing investment after that. Where did that money come from? More highways necessited more highways, expansions, maintenance, etc., allowing people to move further and further out from the city core, spending more money on transportation (do you think the housing bubble would have been so serious if people would have had an additional $12,000 in their pockets? - the average cost of driving and maintaining a car). Ultimately, highways cost people and governments more money than they generate, especially when you count the social and environmental costs. Therefore, it is REASONABLE, as you might say, to take some of the money devoted to highway investment and invest it in something else that could ease all of the costs associated with transportation, add character to our cities and our state, make a statement about our commitment to responsible future development, draw and retain a stronger workforce, create new opportunities, and ultimately generate more economic growth.
Snub your nose all you want. Be closed-minded. Then look around, and see where it gets you and the economy. New investments have always been the key to economic development and improvement.
Road use taxes.
And it’s reasonable that money generated by the highway system would be returned to it.
The train—or ‘Casey Jones’ Coleman’s trolley car for that matter—should pay its own way, just like COTA should.
Considering the people actually using the highway don’t directly pay for it either…that argument doesn’t really hold any water.
I guess it’s too much to expect that the people actually riding the train will pay for it.
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