Passenger Rail

A proposal that rail advocates say will move Ohio toward reviving passenger train service is back on track.

Ohio's transportation budget was approved in plenty of time to make the deadline of the end of this month, and there were some changes between the House and Senate version.

At around $11.5 billion, Ohio's biennial transportation budget would primarily fund state highway, route and bridge construction projects.

The latest version of House Bill 54, the biennial transportation budget, has Ohio rejoining the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission at $25,000 a year.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission organized a meeting of community and business stakeholders to start planning for passenger rail lines in the Columbus region.

Columbus is one of the biggest cities in America without passenger trains, and while that could change in the next decade, there are complications to keeping it on track.

Federal funding is helping to plan potential passenger rail routes across the state. But it likely will be years before the project comes to fruition.

Research firm Scioto Analysis found central Ohio could gain up to $48 million in the first year of a new passenger rail corridor being constructed, mostly from the jobs to build up the infrastructure.

Each December, a tiny museum in northwest Ohio puts on an elaborate display celebrating a Christmas icon: trains.

The Federal Railroad Administration has selected four routes serving Ohio and other states as priorities for Amtrak expansion, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said Tuesday.