State wants passenger trains to Toledo and Pittsburgh, too
Engineering firm will study new routes
Thursday, July 15, 2010 04:21 PM
By Matt Leingang
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS -- Toledo and Pittsburgh are among the next cities that Ohio wants to connect as part of its developing passenger rail project, state transportation officials said today.
The state has signed a $7.8 million contract with an engineering firm to study new routes that would branch off from Ohio's marquee federal stimulus project -- a $400 million rail system with 79 mph trains connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati beginning in 2012.
The contract with AECOM, a Los Angeles-based company that has worked on California's planned high-speed rail system, will determine routes for a future 110 mph service on four corridors: Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland, Cleveland-Pittsburgh, Toledo-Columbus and Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati.
The federal government requires this kind of preliminary environmental impact study before funding can be approved. The study would likely take about a year, said Matt Dietrich, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission.
I noticed one of the proposed corridors is Cleveland to Pittsburgh. Now if we could only get that train to come through Youngstown and have a station stop here.