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3-C RAIL STATION
Staff photo by Gary Stelzer
Miami University student Katelyn Ashbaugh talks with Hans Landefeld from the Miami Conservancy District in front of the depot on Charles Street in Middletown during a bus trip to the site in conjunction with the “World Town Planning Day” hosted by the Butler County Department of Development on Friday, Nov 6.
Can city woo 3-C rail stop?
Middletown must show how it could develop area around depot for expected passengers.
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By Jessica Heffner,
Staff Writer
11:39 PM Friday, November 6, 2009
MIDDLETOWN — About 75 residents, college students and area city and county planners came together for nine hours Friday, Nov. 6, with one goal in mind: how to get a passenger rail stop in Middletown.
The event was part of a “World Town Planning Day” discussion held by the Butler County Department of Development at Middletown City Hall, One Donham Plaza. The group brainstormed ideas for how to make a usable intermodal depot as well as develop the area within a half mile radius of its location.
Middletown has been proposed as a stop on the 3-C Corridor, a passenger rail line that would travel between Cincinnati and Cleveland with stops in Sharonville, Dayton, Columbus and Berea, and future stops in Middletown, Springfield and Galion. The city must develop a comprehensive plan for development and transportation options in and around the depot to be included in the rail line.
“What we are doing is thinking of what could happen with a downtown depot,” said Joe Schmidt, planner for Butler County. “We want to make sure there is an interest in having it here in Middletown, and making sure the state knows we want it in the city.”
The 3-C Corridor would likely start with conventional trains running at about 80 mph and would be upgraded to high-speed passenger rail incrementally. Trains could be running the route between major cities in as soon as two years, according to officials from the Ohio Rail Development Commission, which is spearheading the project.
Marty Koehler, planning director for Middletown, said the ideas generated by the event will be compiled by a Miami class and submitted for consideration later this year. He felt the event will be a boon to the city, as it is under competition for a stop.
“Where else could you get 75 people together just to develop a plan for you like this?” he said.
Group brainstorms local rail stop ideas
The possibility of light passenger rail riding through Middletown is one step closer to becoming a reality.
A group of about 75 area residents, college students, business leaders and planning professionals brainstormed ideas to help develop a train depot and the surrounding area in preparation for a Middletown stop on the 3-C Corridor.
The 3-C Corridor rail system, targeted for funding through the federal stimulus, would run from Cincinnati to Columbus to Cleveland, with minimal stops in between. Middletown is hoping that after it was named a possible stop by the Ohio Rail Development Commission, it can keep itself on the plan. But part of the requirement is showing the commission how the city could handle a depot and successfully develop the area around it to entice the 5.8 million Ohioans expected to use the train.
“What we are doing is thinking of what could happen with a downtown depot,” said Joe Schmidt, a planner for Butler County. “We want to make sure there is an interest in having it here in Middletown, and making sure the state knows we want it in the city.”
The day included a trek down to the proposed depot site on Charles Street. Students from the University of Cincinnati and Miami University flanked out with city residents, business owners and planners across southwest Ohio to get the lay of neighborhoods and the scope of current retail business.
Jerry Lanich, a St. Clair Twp. zoning administrator, Sara Jo Shipley and Naomi Ng, both UC students, and Rob Chambers, a Miami student, were part of the group charged with figuring out a usable train depot.
While Lanich said he thought the old Charles Street building was beautiful, “it just can’t function in the 21st Century. ... We have to think of the way things have to move in the future and rail is what that is. You can’t get the modern amenities people expect here,” he said.
“We’re having a hard time visualizing where to put platforms and how to design it,” Shipley said. “But we don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from. We have the luxury of dreaming right now.”
Rachel Lewitt, who owns the depot and is with Harry A. Finkelman Inc. Realtors, said the rail would be a catalyst to revitalizing the city and “as long as we have funds allocated for the stop, we are ready.”
Ideas from the event will be compiled over the next month by Miami class of urban regional planning and geography students taking a class on passenger rail. A final product will be presented to the Butler County Planning Commission to be considered for the depot, said Schmidt, who is co-teaching the class with Miami professor Jim Ruebenstein.
“I don’t know a planner who is not interested in this, this is what you live for, to think about these changes and weaning people off their cars,” Ruebenstein said. “People are really interested in the whole concept of restoring rail here.”
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Depending on how many trains first start between Clevland and Cinncinnati, perhaps an Enhanced Passenger Service should be considersd that would make certain stops, thus providing an Express Like service on a double track line.
Jerome Rosenfeld
Stamford, CT
11:53 AM, 11/10/2009
10:12 PM, 11/8/2009
"Light rail" is NOT what is being proposed here. Middletown's best shot at profiting from a light rail system might be as a "shared maintenance" type of arrangement for the rolling stock if we were the "end of line" for both Cinci and Dayton Metro systems, should they ever grow large enough to think about such a thing. Couldn't use the same 3C track, though.
5:46 PM, 11/8/2009
4:33 PM, 11/8/2009
3:31 PM, 11/8/2009