Meet Ron Pilatowski, Central Ohio Chapter Leader

I started riding Amtrak back in 1985. It was relatively easy for me to do at that time, since I was living in Toledo and had easy access to the Lake Shore Limited. Toledo provided me with great access to a variety of Amtrak routes and I rode the City of New Orleans, California Zephyr, Southwest Limited, Crescent and Cardinal at varying times in the late 1980s.

In 1986, I was aboard the since discontinued Lake Cities waiting to head to Detroit and points beyond as it was set to depart from Toledo’s Central Union Terminal, now the MLK Station. While waiting to depart, someone came on board the train and distributed a membership brochure for the Ohio Association of Rail Passengers (OARP), now All Aboard Ohio. I joined and have been a member ever since.

In 1992, I relocated to Columbus (should I say was exiled to Columbus?) where there was no regular Amtrak service, so it took a little more effort to take advantage of passenger rail. I still used Toledo as a departure point to ride Amtrak, and I thought that it would only be a matter of time before Columbus got Amtrak service. Surely a thriving central Ohio would get passenger service in a relatively short period of time, I thought. I joined the local group that met at the Red Door Tavern led by Bob Boyce and then Larry Robertson. I experienced the highs and lows of attempts to get Columbus reconnected to the Amtrak system, with a near miss back in 2010 in the form of service along the 3-C Corridor, only to be dramatically let down by the veto of Governor John Kasich. It was truly a day of infamy!

Larry Robertson worked hard to keep the fires burning here in Columbus, and we continue to labor to get service restored to Ohio’s capital city. We diligently spread the gospel of passenger rail and I feel that the tide is turning. Larry stepped aside from his leadership position of our central Ohio group a couple of years ago and I took over. Our group is working at a number of levels as we strive to get the central Ohio “donut” filled in Amtrak’s national network! If you live in central Ohio and want to get involved in our efforts, we meet the third Saturday of each month from 10 am until 12 noon, currently at the Grandview Heights Public Library, 1685 West First Avenue, in Grandview Heights. We would love to have you join us!

IT ISN’T ABOUT NOSTALGIA

PASSENGER RAIL IS ABOUT OUR FUTURE... A BETTER ONE

I’ve loved trains since I was a kid, as the photo below attests. That’s me and my cousin George at about age 8 and about to get a cab ride in a Canadian National passenger locomotive.

Many of us who call ourselves advocates can’t help but wax nostalgic about the “Golden Years” of passenger rail service. Look at this rough schedule from the 1930’s of the trains serving Columbus, Ohio every day. 57 passenger trains each day from a half-dozen different railroads... and that wasn’t even the peak of that era.

Today in Columbus and Central Ohio: zero trains since 1979 when Amtrak’s National Limited pulled out for the last time. It left from what locals referred to as “the AmShack”, since Columbus Union Station had been illegally demolished several years before.

I refuse to be nostalgic about this. I am angry that I live in the second-largest city without passenger rail as a travel option and even when we last had service it was one train a day. None of us should feel good about that. But anger is a good motivator in this case.

And so is having a vision of a better future for you, me, and every generation who follows us.

That’s why people who meet with me will hear me say that reviving and expanding passenger rail is about much more than riding a train to relive some distant memory. That’s the last thing on my mind.

What reasons that matter more are the following:

• It will connect more Ohioans and open up more opportunities for jobs, education, health care, and more, and make our transportation system complete and more equitable.

• In doing so, it will enlarge Ohio’s available workforce to more employers and companies looking to locate and expand in Ohio.

• It will improve our environment and climate by providing a better travel option to the pollution created by motor vehicles, many of which are single occupancy cars.

• It will encourage more and better local options for “first-mile”/” last mile” travel like light rail, bus rapid transit, bike and scooter rentals, Uber & Lyft, and walkable neighborhoods around station stops.

• And.....those station stops will be more than just a place to arrive or depart by train. They will be magnets for mixed-use development of vacant lands and/or the adaptive reuse of existing older buildings in each city where the trains stop.

To that end, All Aboard Ohio has commissioned a detailed economic impact study of the proposed 3C&D (Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati) Corridor, which is one of a half-dozen Ohio corridors now awaiting news on their applications for Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) planning grants and the FRA’s Corridor ID program to expand passenger rail service. The study has been generously funded through a grant from The Columbus Foundation.

We’re hoping to see the results of the study by mid-October. Our plan is to use this information to show there are good, solid, economic reasons for Ohio to restore and expand the kind of passenger rail service that connects us to each other in Ohio and the Buckeye State to the rest of the Great Lakes Region and the nation... and a better future for us all.

HOUSE CUTS TO RAIL HIT THE ROCKS, WHILE BIPARTISAN SENATE BILL ADVANCING SMOOTHLY

Update from Railroad Passengers Association (RPA)'s E-Newsletter

Internal divisions within the House Republican Caucus stymied progress on appropriations bills this week, as House leadership was forced to pull its Fiscal Year 2024 Defense bill due to lack of Republican support. The Senate, meanwhile, moved ahead with a three-bill funding package that includes the FY24 Transportation appropriations. That’s good news for passengers, the Senate has rejected the radical cuts to Amtrak and passenger rail seen in the House version of the bill.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters that he’s “frustrated with some people in the [Republican] conference,” saying some of his members are holding the Defense bill hostage over unrelated issues. “I couldn’t put it on the floor (even though) I don’t have one complaint by any member of what’s wrong with this bill.”

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), the Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hosted an event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to warn that the drastic cuts to transportation funding in the FY24 House Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD) would lead to “project delays, cost increases, and more bureaucracy.”

The fact that the Senate is having a much easier time in advancing its bipartisan T-HUD bill is a good sign for Amtrak and passenger rail programs, since it increases its negotiating leverage in any future reconciliation conference between the Senate and the House. That means avoiding drastic cuts to service and advancing work on corridor upgrades and new trainsets.

Please join our campaign to keep the Passenger Rail Revolution moving forward! Just use the Rail Passengers advocacy resource tool to contact your elected officials in Congress to let them know you support America’s rail network. With just a few minutes of your time, you can help to build a better rail network for the next generation of passengers!

The Senate is scheduled to consider amendments to the bill next week. Congress has until September 30th to pass all 12 funding bills to avoid a government shutdown.