posted
..but maybe this time something will happen.
Interesting story on Ohio agreeing to proceed on efforts to get rail service on the 3-C route (Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland). As this notes, it has been studied 7 times before:
I see Jolene Molitoris is now with Ohio DOT. She served as head of the FRA for eight years. I saw her speak at a business conference - a very smart, articulate lady. Perhaps she can get Ohio off dead center.
Only bad thing about more rail in Ohio is that I read that the wonderful Cincinnati Union Terminal no longer has the capacity to handle more than the one train (CSX main line goes through the terminal) so supposedly a new station would have to be built.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
A perfectly legitimate question, Ms. Sojourner, but quite simply, no room
The Concourse has been razed and the area that formerly held the tracks and platforms at CUT has now become a C/TOFC facility.
In view of that there has not more than "one a day" for the past thirty eight years, it is simply unreasonable to have expected CSX and NS, as successors to the now dissolved Cincinatti Union Terminal Company, to allow the land to sit unused "just in case' some public agency desired to restore frequent passenger train service.
Posts: 9980 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
That is one train at a time, not a capacity of one train a day. I am reasonably sure that for th e right price NS or CSX or whoever could be persuaded to part with a 50 foot wider or so strip on the side next to the station so that another couple of tracks could be installed.
From presumably one track, 14 ft to center of next track, about 36 feet to the next track so that you can have a 25 feet wide platform in between equals 49 feet, gets you to 50 feet, and now you have a three track station. Time in terminal station for daytime fast trains does not need to be near what it has to be for a train with sleepers, full diners, etc. that are originating / terminating from overnigth to multi-day trips.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Good photo of CUT, Mr. Norman. If you zoom in a little you will see the CSX line going under the remains of the concourse. It wasn't that long ago there was another track there, but it had to go when the CSX line was lowered to clear CUT for the high clearance of the double stack containers.
So the only option now is to reclaim a portion of the NS intermodal yard. Not likely unless there are a lot more stimulus dollars. But railroads have been known to relocate yards (or maybe just a few tracks) if the price is right.
It is hard to believe that before its demolition to make way for the intermodal terminal, the concourse was 450 feet long and provided access to 14 tracks. Ohio woke up about 36 years too late. The huge murals that decorated the stairs to those tracks now reside at the Cincinnati airport.
Fortunately the best was saved and is a treasure for Cincinnati:
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Many years ago, during the days when AMTRAK used the hard-to-get-to "River Road Station" along the Ohio River, the lower level of CUT was a shopping mall. After the shopping mall was closed and torn down, the main part of CUT (less the old concousre which formerly extended out over the tracks) became the Cincinnati Natural History Museum, which it still is today, as far as I know (I lived in the Cincinnati area 15+ years ago), which would be a great place to spend time "between trains" at CUT, except for the fact that Cincinnati only has one tri-weekly AMTRAK train now, the Cardinal, which arrives at "non-passenger-friendly hours" going each direction.
AMTRAK has been confined to a small waiting room now in one corner of the Museum.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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