Kaptur Calls on House to Improve Northern Ohio Passenger Rail Service
WASHINGTON—Today Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur went to the floor of the House to urge passage of H.R. 749, the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act, which reauthorizes Amtrak for the next four years, makes certain improvements to rail infrastructure, and provides support to strengthen our national passenger rail network, creating more diverse and reliable travel options for the public. In her statement, Rep. Kaptur emphasized the need to increase attention to passenger rail in the Great Lakes region, particularly in Northern Ohio. Investments in rail infrastructure are more important than ever, with increasing rail traffic passing through stations across Northern Ohio. News outlets including the Toledo Blade and Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer have reported on the problems resulting from increased congestion on the region’s rail lines.
Video of the speech can be seen here. Full text of her statement is included below.
“Mr. Chairman, as the representative of the busiest Amtrak station in Ohio at Toledo and the Amtrak station in Sandusky, I rise to urge passage of this important bill to continue and advance passenger rail service across our nation.
When I was born, the population of the United States was 146 million people. Today it surpasses 320 million. By 2050, our nation’s population is predicted to reach 500 million. As time moves forward, the necessity for passenger rail will become clearer with each passing day.
Many of our major urban centers are clogged with traffic jams daily and the railroads across my region of our continent have severe freight rail and passenger rail conflicts because they are forced to use the same tracks. Imagine, we are living in the 21st century and are still tethered to 19th century rail pathways.
Passenger rail travel in Ohio is booming, up from 108,000 passengers in 2007 to 160,000 passengers in 2013. A trend my district has seen as well, with Toledo’s passengers on the Northern Ohio corridor increasing from 53,000 to 77,000 over the same time. Imagine the traffic jams if all these individuals traveled by car instead of rail.
It is not just the northeastern part of our nation that needs added attention to passenger rail service.
It also should include the Great Lake region. The corridor that stretches the length of my district, and connects our industrial heartland corridor from Pittsburgh to Cleveland to Sandusky to Toledo to Gary to Chicago, needs special attention too.
During an extended stretch last year, between July and September, the Capitol Limited, which runs from Washington, DC to Chicago, and includes the Northern Ohio stretch, completed only 2.7 percent of its trips on time.
The dramatic increase of freight rail consistently bumps passenger rail service, which we also need, causing lengthy delays in passenger service across our vast region. I have two articles that I would ask to insert into the record, detailing these troubles.
Customers are understandably frustrated.
Our region needs a capital and investment plan too. Our region needs evaluation for state supported routes. Our region needs expedited attention, methodology development and service planning to remedy growing congestion and inefficiencies that benefit no one – not the freight lines, not passenger service and surely not the communities they are supposed to serve, nor connectivity to inner city passenger rail service.
I appreciate the efforts of Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio as well as Subcommittee Chairman Denham and Ranking Member Capuano in working together and producing this bill.
I ask that our Midwest region not be excluded for alternate passenger rail service pilot programs, opportunities for rail investment, station improvements and historic preservation, or public-private partnerships that can advance modern passenger rail.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.”
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