rail update, and an op-ed on the cleveland to pittsburgh corridor

From the Columbus Underground blog, an update from Stu Nicholson on Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) actions:

"It is noteworthy that among 22 ARRA federal stimulus funded rail-related projects approved by the Ohio Rail Development Commission members yesterday includes $7 million dollars for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) of 4 of the 7 Ohio Hub high-speed rail corridors: Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati, Cleveland-Pittsburgh, Cleveland-Toledo, and Columbus-Toledo."

So while the PEIS is one component for future potential development, an op-ed in the Business-Journal from Bill DeCicco of Castlo presents another view of the situation here :

"Recently the Ohio Rail Development Commission distributed a map that designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States.

My analysis:

unbelievable.

How can a national high-speed rail corridor, which is intended to link large East Coast metropolitan areas with major Midwest destinations, not be designated to include the 130-mile Pittsburgh-Youngstown (and Ravenna)-Cleveland link that connects the Northeast and Keystone corridors with the Chicago hub network?"

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"The Ohio Rail Development Commission is ignoring one of the nation’s most heavily traveled rail freight (and Amtrak) corridors from New York to Chicago, which parallels the interstate highway corridor across Ohio and the Lake Erie, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence international waterway corridor. All three transportation modes provide a vital east-west link while a proposed rail corridor from Cleveland through Columbus dead ends in Cincinnati with an expensive appendage to the Greater Cincinnati Airport, which just happens to be in another state."

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"The Mahoning Valley needs to join forces with Toledo, Sandusky, Lorain-Elyria, Cleveland, Akron-Canton, Kent-Ravenna to reverse the Columbus sense of entitlement. Perhaps the key is to convince our private and public sector partners in the Cleveland area that the 3-C relationship is not working for them and it makes more economic sense to focus on a new Toledo-Cleveland-Youngstown (and Pittsburgh) corridor."

what do you think about this issue?

do you feel this issue is on the radar of local leaders and citizens?