Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
I have family around Solon southeast of Cleveland and that area is begging for a Cleveland to Youngstown rail connection. Commuter rail used to operate this corridor and it's all still right there waiting to be reactivated. This also presents the obvious potential for an alternative Cleveland-Pittsburgh via Youngstown fast passenger link. Ohio is a cultural bellwether. If you could get the public behind building out a modern rail network reconnecting these post-industrial metros, it could be an immense sea change for political support needed to do the same nationwide.
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needless to say there was a cleveland to youngstown commuter rail service, but it ended in 1977.
there was a serious preferred plan to restart cle commuter rail in the oughties, but it was shot down by far leftie dennis kucinich of all people who said it would be too noisey (!) so it was politically stopped cold after 5yrs of study and planning. but anyway solon would have been on the initial route — see below (and ya gotta love those 2001 era costs,eh?):
2001 Northeast Ohio Commuter Rail Feasibility Study (NEORail) - by Parsons Brinckerhoff, Ohio for NOACA
Description:
This study was initiated in 1996 to identify the operational, institutional, financial, and political feasibility of a Northeast Ohio commuter rail system. The following nine counties comprised the study area: Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Stark and Summit.
Initial study goals were to:
I. Provide a cost-effective transportation option
II. Reduce congestion on the region's highways
III. Improve the region's environment
IV. Reduce future demand for new highway investment
V. Advance regional policies on growth and development
VI. Increase access to jobs by workers and the transit-dependent
Details/Assumptions:
The network identified by this study assumed a downtown rail terminus near the existing Amtrak station on Cleveland's lakefront, consistent with RTA's North Coast Transportation Center. Over 15 alternative alignments were initially studied. After substantial analysis, it was determined that the network that would best achieve the region's development and mobility goals in a cost-effective manner was comprised of four routes within existing freight railroad corridors:
1. Lake West corridor to Lorain (via Norfolk Southern right of way)
2. Lake East corridor to Painesville and Ashtabula County (CSX)
3. Southeast corridor to Aurora and Mantua (Norfolk Southern), and
4. South corridor to Akron and Canton via Hudson (Norfolk Southern)
Based upon study findings, the study technical oversight committee recommended implementing the network in phases with coordinated through-service, i.e. not all trains terminating in downtown Cleveland (all costs are in 2000 $s):
Tier 1 Near-Term - Lake West and Southeast corridors
(6,600 daily trips, $296 million capital cost, $10.5 million annual operating cost & $7.1 million annual operating subsidy)
Tier 2 Mid-Term - Lake East and South corridors
(7,000 daily trips, $547 million capital cost, $21.1 million annual operating cost & $16.5 annual operating subsidy)
Tier 3 Long-Term - Elyria to Cleveland, Medina to Cleveland, Canton to Akron, and Kent to Cleveland ( 6,000 daily trips, $800 million capital cost, $31.6 million annual operating cost, and $23.6 million annual operating subsidy).
(Tier 3 would also include service frequency upgrades on selected Tier I and II lines.)