Ohio Rail Development Commission: continued grade-crossing work, federal grant wins and two passenger-corridor studies

Director Dietrich, speaking for the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC), told the House Transportation Committee the commission is continuing a slate of safety and development projects that leverage modest state funds to attract substantially larger federal and private investments.

Dietrich said Ohio has an extensive rail network—more than 5,000 active rail line miles, served by about 40 operating railroads—and that rail provides both freight benefits and community impacts. He told the committee there are roughly 5,600 public grade crossings in Ohio, about 70% of which have active warning devices; the commission averages dozens of reportable crossing incidents annually and continues to prioritize safety improvements.

On federal grants, Dietrich said the commission has been successful winning Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) program grants: the commission reported 14 awards of 15 submitted projects that together drew about $87 million in federal funding while the commission contributed roughly $6.4 million, which Dietrich said leveraged roughly $21 in outside investment for every ORDC dollar used. He described projects including rehabilitation of short-line corridors (the Maumee and Western line, which he said has been transformed by new ownership and investment) and yard and track improvements such as the Newark yard upgrade that supports eastern Ohio freight and construction activity.

Dietrich spent substantial time on the governor-and-General-Assembly-funded grade crossing elimination program. He said the commission used an initial $100 million state allocation to prepare and apply for federal construction grants; Ohio won four construction awards and $81 million in federal construction funding, out of 123 national awards, because the state had used its funding to prepare projects to the construction stage. Dietrich described the program as “transformational” and said the commission has additional locations under assessment for future rounds, including sites in Toledo (Point Place) and Union County (Bear Swamp Road) that the commission identified by name.

On passenger rail, Dietrich described the two-corridor Federal Railroad Administration planning process in which ORDC is engaged. The two corridors are the Cleveland–Columbus–Dayton–Cincinnati corridor (commonly called the “3 C and D” corridor) and the Cleveland–Toledo–Detroit corridor. Dietrich said ORDC submitted a completed gap analysis for the 3 C and D corridor and had received a draft gap analysis for Cleveland–Toledo–Detroit; both gap analyses are a first step in a multi-step FRA process that leads to a service development plan. He said step 1 (gap analysis and planning scope) is expected to finish between May and September and that step 2 would produce the service development plan with ridership, equipment, stop locations and cost estimates.

Dietrich asked members and constituents to raise rail concerns with the commission, and he listed other ORDC programs in the budget: the road-crossing (section 130) safety program (about $14 million), a $10 million wayside-detector expansion program and a $1 million orphan-crossing program, all funds he said have been committed to specific projects or are in the construction pipeline.

Committee members asked about corridor timelines, interstate cooperation and how the commission responds to local congestion and emergency-services impacts from blocked crossings. Dietrich said the commission will take constituent requests and deploy planning or engineering resources as warranted, from small changes to full grade separations.