COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio will be one step closer to having a rail system that connects residents in northeast Ohio to those in southwest Ohio and a couple points in-between by the time the week is over.
NBC 4 reported with the FAST FACTS.
Friday, Oct. 2 is the big deadline for Ohio to get its application in for federal stimulus dollars.
Officials with the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Rail Development Commission are submitting an application Thursday for $564 million in federal stimulus money to pay for the Ohio 3C Quick Start Passenger Rail Plan.
Ohio joins 39 other states in competing for some of the $8 billion in federal stimulus money that has been set aside for passenger rail service. In all, the 40 states have requested $100 billion.
The 3C Quick Start plan would offer 79-mile-per-hour service between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati by 2011. In later years, speeds would be increased to 110 miles per hour.
Some 478,000 passengers would board the train each year in Ohio, according to a recent Amtrak study. Other studies estimate that the ridership rate would jump to nearly 600,000 riders by 2014 using the same schedule and stops.
Creating, improving and upgrading the infrastructure necessary to handle a passenger rail system of this size won’t come cheaply. That's where the $564 million comes in.
The Amtrak study estimated that the initial program would generate more than $12 million in annual revenue but the state will have to chip in another $17 million each year to keep the rail system running.
The project would create 400 construction jobs immediately as well many ongoing jobs, according to officials.
Officials said they hope to find out if the funds have been granted by early next year. If that were to happen, work could get underway as early as 2011.
For additional information, stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
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