High Speed Rail Hub, Gas won't get cheaper, eternal war and all

Please forgive any typing errors, from the Ohio Rail newsletter.

August 2007 Ohio Passenger Rail News Two

HUGE IMPACTS SEEN FROM OHIO HUB, MIDWEST RAIL

Two recently completed studies show that the economic impacts from developing fast, frequent passenger trains in Ohio and the Midwest could generate more than $30 Billion in benefits over 30 years.

The Ohio Hub, offering 79-110 mpg trains on 1780 route miles serving 53 stations, could create 16,700 new jobs and bring $9 billion in benefits. The larger Midwest Regional Rail System (MWRRS), linking 102 cities in the Midwest with a 3,000 mile network of trains traveling 79-110 mph, could generate $23.1billion
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Each major city in Ohio could see hundreds of millions of
dollars in downtown development and more than 1,000 new
jobs from the Ohio Hub.
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Worth of benefits to the Midwest. Two Ohio routes are part of the MWRRS – Clevelan-Toledo-Chicago and Cincinnati-Indianapolis-Chicago.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) hired TEMS Inc. to conduct the study; the same firm conducted the MWRRS study.

Both reports break down the economic impacts for individual cities proposed to be served. For example, annual riders to and from a station in Columbus, would be about 1.11 million, stimulating up to $340 million in downtown development, and creating up to 1925 local jobs.

Much more detail on the two economic impact reports , including downloads of the full reports, is available by visiting the ORDC’s new Ohio Hub web site at:

www.ohiohub.com