Leak: Ohio 3C Plan getting $400M in stimulus funds (Pittsburgh: how much, live)

[BrianTH]

This is according to a Columbus Dispatch article:

Ohio getting $400 million in federal rail money | The Columbus Dispatch

The official announcement of how the $8 billion in rail funding in the stimulus bill will be spent is coming tomorrow.

Anyway, this is good news for Pittsburgh if true. Although it won't immediately provide service to Pittsburgh, this is the first stage of a greater plan for Ohio rail that would eventually connect to Pittsburgh as well as a greater Midwest system based in Chicago.

In general, I don't expect a lot of money for rail in Pittsburgh in this round, but any funding that goes to the Midwest is likely to be good for Pittsburgh eventually.

[pman]

bigger impact is the money for a new flyover in chicago and improvements to Porter, IN which is one of the worst bottlenecks in the country. should increase OTP for the Capitol Ltd though Detroit will see the most benefit. PA came out pretty small but most important for Pitt they funded the study for HSR to Pitt from Harrisburg so maybe we'll finally get a good picture of what can be done and how much it would cost.

[BrianTH]

Looks like at least $2.154 billion total for the Chicago-based Midwest network in addition to the $400 million for Ohio's 3C, so that's good. As I expected, PA is only getting $26.4 million, most of which is going to Philly-Harrisburg, but we are getting $750K for the study pman mentioned. And that is what we really need for more funding in future rounds, since we just didn't have the documentation to support a serious request this time.

[CortlandGirl79]

Over here in Ne Ohio we're hoping for a Cleveland to Youngstown to Pittsburgh route. My dad always talks about taking the train from Warren to Cleveland when he was a kid and i would love to have the option to go to either city by rail.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by CortlandGirl79

Over here in Ne Ohio we're hoping for a Cleveland to Youngstown to Pittsburgh route. My dad always talks about taking the train from Warren to Cleveland when he was a kid and i would love to have the option to go to either city by rail.

I'm confident a Cleveland to Pittsburgh route will eventually get done--it is just sorta being approached from each end first, which in my view is explainable by the fact the center of political gravity in each relevant state is on the other side of that route. In other words, the hypothetical State of Cleveburgh would probably have been much farther along by this point.

That said, last I knew they hadn't decided on the alignment, and were looking at either New-Castle/Youngstown/Warren, or Salem-Columbiana/Alliance. Personally, I can't figure out the appeal of the southern alignment, so I am also hoping Youngstown gets its train.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Looks like at least $2.154 billion total for the Chicago-based Midwest network in addition to the $400 million for Ohio's 3C, so that's good. As I expected, PA is only getting $26.4 million, most of which is going to Philly-Harrisburg, but we are getting $750K for the study pman mentioned. And that is what we really need for more funding in future rounds, since we just didn't have the documentation to support a serious request this time.

PA actually ahd a very good request in for Keystone East including express track, interlocking upgrades, signaling upgrades, and substation upgrades to allow for 125 mph operation. west of harrisburg had very little in the way of studies and what they did have (what's needed to add three Roundtrips) PennDOT didn't see fit to include...instead they added mag leve and the scranton commuter project. It should have been extra track to Pitt and Keystone East and that's it. well, and that study which IS important

[BrianTH]

The maglev request was obviously going nowhere, but I think they threw it in because at least they had a bunch of documentation ready to go off-the-shelf.

Anyway, optimist that I am, I'm assuming they won't get caught this unprepared again, since this is almost undoubtedly just the first phase in a lot more federal funding to come.

[allanPgh]

Pittsburgh has the potential to connect the Northeast and the Midwest. it is basically half way between two major mega-regions in the US. However, this needs bold leadership at every level: city, county,regional, state, Federal.