Public forum to look at future of local passenger train service
August 28, 2008
A public forum in Athens on Saturday will examine the possibility of bringing passenger trains back to the area.
The event, sponsored by the Athens Public Library, will feature 14 panelists from government, academia and advocacy groups, who will talk about the feasibility of bringing rail travel to southeast Ohio.
Organizer Todd Bastin, the library’s adult program coordinator, said he hopes the panelists will share ideas, ask each other questions, answer questions from the audience, and generally provide information for the public on a timely issue.
“It’s not so much a political sort of conference as it is an informational conference,” he said.
Bastin acknowledged, however, that he personally believes the region could benefit enormously from passenger rail service running from Athens to Columbus and beyond.
“I think there are a lot of people who would use it,” he said.
Bastin noted that many people in Athens County commute to Columbus and elsewhere for work, but with rising gas prices, some lower-income workers are finding they can’t afford it.
“They can only afford to live in this area, so they have to commute to get a decent job,” he said. “I think there would be a lot of commuters if there was a rail.”
All Aboard Ohio, a statewide organization pushing for more passenger railroad service, held an event in Athens in July 2007, to discuss a proposal for a train route between Athens and Columbus.
According to Bastin, however, current plans by the Ohio Rail Development Commission for expanding the state’s light-rail network don’t include an Athens-to-Columbus passenger route.
Stu Nicholson is public information officer for the Ohio Rail Development Commission, and also one of the scheduled panelists at the Saturday event.
Nicholson suggested Monday that while interest in light rail is clearly growing in southeast Ohio, his agency so far doesn’t see enough potential customers to make it feasible to include an Athens-to-Columbus line in its immediate plans.
“To our knowledge, there doesn’t seem to be the ridership,” he said.
He added that even the parts of the state’s light-rail plans that seem more feasible may not happen as soon as many might like, given the current economic climate.
“To be brutally honest, it’s going to be a while before (the plan) happens, because of the lack of federal funding,” he said.
Details of the state’s plans for passenger rail can be found at www2.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/Ohio%20Hub/Website/ordc/index.html.
Nicholson said that while he doesn’t want to “build up anybody’s hopes” about the possibility of a passenger rail line coming into Athens, he does want to get people thinking about existing rail infrastructure in the area, and about next-best alternatives for providing the area with some form of mass transit.
If an Athens-to-Columbus rail line isn’t in the cards, he suggested, “I guess the question coming from us is going to be, what’s the next best way to bring some kind of service into southeast Ohio?”
The forum will take place at the Athens Public Library on Home Street at 2 p.m.
Panelists will include Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl; Tim Anderson, associate professor of cultural and systemic geography at Ohio University; Larry Blake, operator for the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway; Andrew Bremer, executive director of All Aboard Ohio; Bob Eichenberg, Athens County planner; Barry Fromm, central and southeast region director for All Aboard Ohio; Paul Logue, Athens city planner; Stu Nicholson, public information officer for the Ohio Rail Development Commission; Debbie Phillips, Athens City Council Fourth Ward representative and 92nd Ohio House District candidate; Charles “Chip” Rogers, passenger rail advocate and historian; Jimmy Stewart, 92nd District Ohio House member; Andy Stone, Athens city streets director; Bill Theisen, Athens County commissioner; and Israel Urieli, OU associate professor of mechanical engineering.
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