Ohio’s robust railroad network is an asset and a hindrance to its economy, participants at an Ohio Department of Transportation consultant’s “listening session” in Toledo for a pending strategic plan remarked Wednesday afternoon.
Desire for a faster, more reliable way to drive between Toledo and Columbus got its due during the session held for the Strategic Transportation and Development Analysis. Among stated objectives for the plan ODOT is to submit to the legislature by year’s end recommendations for improving the Toledo-Columbus and Sandusky-Columbus corridors.
But representatives of the consultant team working on the ODOT study said the issue with railroads was remarkable in that they hadn’t heard it from participants in seven previous sessions elsewhere in Ohio.
More than 100 people from across northwest Ohio — plus a couple from Michigan — representing local governments, transportation planners, industry representatives, and other “stakeholders” — were divided into 15 tables to brainstorm answers to eight questions pertaining to transportation, and its impact on economic development.