A two-pronged approach will be necessary in moving toward the creation of the Ohio Higher Education Rail Network.

First, an informal network of campus liaisons must be organized to begin marshalling campus resources in support of researching and evaluating the concept of passenger rail for higher education. Toward this goal, the first of an annual conference titled Higher Education, Passenger Rail and Ohio’s Future, should be organized. The conference would bring together higher education stakeholders, ORDC officials, state and federal legislators and transportation researchers for the purpose of consideration and evaluation of OHERN plans.

Second, planning should begin on a demonstration project linking two or more schools by rail. A pilot project of this nature would allow stakeholders to thoroughly research and review the concept while having the opportunity to experience the proposed network firsthand.

Pilot Rail Project

Following the Higher Education, Passenger Rail and Ohio’s Future conference and the necessary environmental and planning studies by ODOT, the next step in the process would consist of a two-year demonstration project linking two or more universities by rail.

A demonstration project would provide researchers with a wealth of transportation-related measures while numerous demographic and marketing indicators involving patterns of use, rider satisfaction and the testing of new ticketing technologies could be gathered and studied.

Two excellent test sites exist for possible use in a demonstration project.

Creating a Rail Network for Higher Education in Northwest-Central Ohio

The OHERN Institute is proposing two test sites as ideal locations for conducting a two-year demonstration project. Site #1 is located in Northwest Ohio. Site #2 links northwest Ohio with central Ohio.

Figure 2. Passenger Rail Route for the OHERN Institute’s Proposed Pilot Project: Toledo – Bowling Green (Click to Enlarge)

Site #1: Within a 25 mile radius of downtown Toledo and the main AMTRAK station (Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza) lie four institutions of higher education: Bowling Green State University, Owens Community College, the University of Toledo and Lourdes College. These institutions represent a cross-section of higher education: rural and urban public universities, a community college and a small, private college. All four schools have rail to their campus.

Site #1 is the smaller of the two proposed sites. It is centered in northwest Ohio (Figure 2) and encompasses 35 miles of rail linking four schools in the Toledo metropolitan area

The proposed Northwest Ohio project has the advantage of meeting key transportation priority needs specified in the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Government’s (TMACOG) 2007-2035 Transportation Master Plan, and would serve as an effective method of testing passenger rail as a means of fostering greater cooperation and sharing of resources among Ohio’s institutions of higher learning within a small geographic area.

Site #2 extends the distance covered in Site #1 from 35 miles to 140 miles and adds four more schools to the study.

The larger test site links northwest and central Ohio. It includes the four schools in Site #1 while extending south from Bowling Green through Findlay, Dunkirk, Kenton, Marysville, Dublin and then on to Columbus (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Passenger Rail Route for the OHERN Institute’s Proposed Pilot Project: Toledo – Columbus. (Click to Enlarge)

The Toledo to Columbus test site encompasses 140 miles of rail allowing the University of Findlay, Owens Community College Findlay extension campus, Brown Mackie College and the Ohio State University to be added to the other four colleges and universities in the demonstration study.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each site. The smaller site would be easier to launch since less track is used and there are fewer schools.

The principle advantages to the Toledo-Columbus test site would be the inclusion of a larger study group for testing and evaluation and the fact that the Toledo-Columbus route completes the third leg of the Ohio Hub, permitting ORDC and other state officials to easily and inexpensively evaluate the Columbus to Toledo route.

Pilot Project Cost

As indicated below, the cost to conduct a pilot study between Toledo and Bowling Green (BG) versus Toledo and Columbus are roughly the same. Two trains would be leased for the pilot project at a two years cost of $1,730,000. Operation, maintenance, track maintenance, insurance and taxes would add another $6,400,000 over that period. Four temporary stations would be built at a total cost of $400,000. In the case of the Toledo-Columbus test four more stations would be added along the route at an additional $400,000. The total cost to conduct the two-year BG-Toledo test would be $8,530,000 (minus transit revenues) and $8,830,000 (minus transit revenues) for the Toledo-Columbus route.

If two trains service the Toledo-Columbus route - the same number that would service the Toledo-Bowling Green route - the frequency of service between Toledo-Columbus would be half that between Toledo-Bowling Green. In other words, while two trains could provide hourly service to stops between Toledo and Bowling Green, those same two trains servicing Toledo-Columbus would only be able to provide service to stops every two hours.

The key difference in cost between the two proposed test sites would be the added cost of temporary stations. Assuming wooden platform stations cost $100,000 each, the Toledo-Bowling Green site requires $400,000 for stations while the Toledo-Columbus test would require $800,000. Although there is a big difference in the distance traveled (i.e., 35 miles vs. 140 miles) the operating and maintenance costs should be the same since the trains would operate the same number of hours each day.

Capital Cost:
• Construction of four temporary stations each @ $100,000 = $400,000
  (Bowling Green-Toledo – Proposed Test Site #1)


• Construction of eight temporary stations each @ $100,000 = $800,000
  (Toledo-Columbus – Proposed Test Site #2)

Annual Lease and Operating Expense:
• DMU Trains: Annual lease payment for two trains: $865,000


• Two trains running 6:30 – 12 midnight, seven days a week, @ $3,200,000

Total Annual Cost of the System (minus capital cost):
• Annual lease payment ($865K) + operating expense ($3.2m) = $4,065,000

Students, faculty, staff and transit riders would be charged when using the system. However, the pilot project would require state and/or federal funding since no funding mechanism would be in place at any of the participating schools to fund the study. Besides, the pilot project is intended to measure student interest and likely level of use prior to making a major commitment to building the network. Conducting a two-year pilot project is essential before any decision is made regarding the network.

As suggested earlier, students, faculty and staff would have the option of buying annual passes at $105 per year. Transit riders would be charged $315 per year (annual pass). Daily pass fees would be set at an appropriate level relative to annual pass fees.