AAE Goals for Rail Transportation
- Obtain national high-speed designation for the Buffalo – Erie – Cleveland corridor.
- Increase passenger rail schedule on the existing East-West corridor.
- Use existing right-of-way to build a passenger rail line parallel to existing rail line.
- Create a plan for passenger rail from Erie to Pittsburgh along the I 79 corridor.
- Create a plan for light rail between regional colleges and universities linking all linesto those proposed in the Ohio Higher Education Rail Network – OHERN.
Keystone Missing from U.S. Rail Plan
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In late July, eight Midwestern governors forged an alliance to bring high speed passenger rail service to their states. The leaders of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri and are seeking a share of $8 billion in stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said, “We want to make sure the Midwest is in front of the rest of the nation.”
This month a candidate for mayor of Toledo, Ohio, called for a “Midwest Mayors Compact” among Cleveland, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Toledo, South Bend and Ann Arbor, to bring high speed rail to those cities.
Across the nation, 40 states and Washington D.C. have submitted 278 pre-applications for high-speed rail totaling $102 billion.
So, how much money has been requested for high speed rail projects in northwestern Pennsylvania?
$0.00
While political leaders nationwide have been tripping over themselves to create high speed rail corridors linking their metropolitan areas with sleek, fast and for the most part federally funded high speed trains, little has been done to build a high speed rail line through Erie County.
That’s about to change.
Thanks to the leadership of Erie County Councilman Kyle Foust and Envision Erie, a grassroots organization is building momentum to improve the region’s public transportation and to lobby for a fair share of rail funding. This June a new organization, All Aboard Erie took the first steps towards establishing itself as a public transportation advocacy group, modeling itself after the highly successful organization, All Aboard Ohio.
While other areas of the country are far ahead of the Erie region in seeking federal funds for high speed rail, we enjoy one unique advantage that will allow us to catch up quickly once our state and federal leaders take up the cause.
This region sits between two federally recognized high speed rail corridors – one in the east that ends in Buffalo, and a Midwest system that extends as far east as Cleveland. A quick look at the map shows that the missing link between those two systems runs right through Erie. Any national high speed rail system that connects New York and Boston to Detroit and Chicago and other cities in between must go through Erie.
There are other advantages: The right of way between Cleveland and Buffalo already exists; the distance from Buffalo to Cleveland is relatively short – less than 200 miles; three states and three major cities are involved, each with a vested interest in making high speed rail a reality; and General Electric, the region’s largest employer, has testified to its interest in building the locomotives for high speed rail.
Furthermore, much of the groundwork has already been done. When Ohio created its extensive “Ohio Hub” plan linking its major cities to the east and west, it wisely included as part of its study the corridor from Cleveland to Buffalo and Toronto. Because of that report we have a good idea of what it will cost and which route it will take.
Pennsylvania is truly the Keystone State in a national high speed rail system. The key step is the next step: to create a groundswell of public support to energize our civic, business and political leaders, uniting behind a shared vision of a fast, efficient and environmentally friendly transportation system.
Get on board by contacting All Aboard Erie.