A new rail committee took a small step toward bringing passenger rail to Ohio by hosting their first meeting last month.
The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s (MORPC) Central Ohio Passenger Rail Committee met on July 23 to organize themselves and begin laying the groundwork for passenger rail in Ohio, once thought a long shot in the Buckeye State.
“We have gone from being a pipe dream to a daydream, and hopefully that will soon become reality,” Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission Chair Chris Amorose Groomes said at the meeting.
The committee is composed of mayors, city managers, policy experts and representatives from local organizations around central Ohio. Terry Emery, the city manager for Marysville, is the committee’s chair.
Most of the meeting was dedicated to reviewing the rail projects’ steps and deciding how the committee should be organized.
Mayors and representatives from Hilliard, Dublin, Worthington and Delaware also attended, sharing with the committee the steps their communities have taken to prepare for a possible train station. The rail project is still in its infancy and the specifics of the routes and stops have yet to be ironed out, meaning these communities are still vying for a potentially lucrative train stop in their towns.