Meanwhile, Michigan and Pennsylvania stakeholders that fostered 110 mph passenger rail services in their states also seek better rail access to the east and west of their respective states. In 2016, All Aboard Ohio conducted an analysis of the most cost-effective, easiest-to-expand passenger rail services in Ohio. While a daily Amtrak Cardinal ranked #1 as the lowest-hanging fruit, #2 was linking up the Wolverine Corridor (Chicago-Detroit/Pontiac) and Keystone Corridor (Pittsburgh-Philadelphia/New York) via Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh station during the daily visit of Amtrak's east and west Chicago-Washington DC Capitol Limiteds that also link Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Toledo (plus Detroit via a connecting bus) in the middle of the night.
All Aboard Ohio conducted this analysis as Congress passed a five-year federal transportation law that provided new programs to fund in expanded passenger rail services. And our analysis was done in advance of the Federal Railroad Administration conducting a multi-state regional passenger rail plan for the Midwest which will include in Ohio. The Detroit-Pittsburgh travel corridor should be considered for inclusion as it is home to more than 12.5 million people, numerous employers, nearly 200,000 college students, large tourism destinations, and yet it has surprisingly few travel alternatives to costly, unproductive, weather-sensitive driving. This lack of options exists despite that more than 1 million households in the corridor have no cars and many more households share just one car.
Amtrak's station in downtown Cleveland is proposed to be expanded as multimodal transportation center including Greyhound buses, regional transit buses, light-rail transit and more intercity passenger trains, including those linking Pittsburgh and Detroit.
Amtrak’s station in downtown Cleveland is proposed to be expanded as multimodal transportation center including Greyhound buses, regional transit buses, light-rail transit and more intercity passenger trains, including those linking Pittsburgh and Detroit.
Providing affordable rail transportation in the Detroit-Pittsburgh travel corridor will create jobs, increase access to jobs, education and health care, and will improve the region’s quality of life.
All Aboard Ohio successfully urged the creation of the Northern Ohio Rail Alliance (NORA), a multi-jurisdictional initiative to preserve and improve the passenger rail service across Northern Ohio. Such initiatives are recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct megaregion planning that cross multiple jurisdictions. The metropolitan planning jurisdictions included in NORA in 2014 by mutual consent are the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (Toledo), Erie Regional Planning Commission (Sandusky), and the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (Cleveland, Elyria).