Also, on Monday, City Manager Joshua Smith clarified that the proposed new location for the station isn’t necessarily to serve as an Amtrak station because the passenger-rail organization wasn’t ready to advise where a station should be located if a future stop were to be located in Hamilton.
Instead, the proposed site was selected for four reasons, Smith said: It’s visible; it had parking available; it was “still in proximity to one of the two Amtrak lines so there was a *chance* we could eventually use the bathroom facilities; and was close to the existing CSX Depot site to minimize the cost of relocation.
A spokesman for All Aboard Ohio, an advocacy group for more passenger-rail transit, told the Journal-News that if the city moves the station a couple of blocks north to city-owned property along Martin Luther King Boulevard, as officials are proposing to do, it’s unlikely that location will be suitable for Amtrak routes Hamilton is hoping for.
Here’s why:
- The station’s current location is along the route now used by Amtrak’s late-night passenger service between Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Chicago, which hasn’t stopped in Hamilton in about 15 years. But the proposed new location for the station is not along that route. That’s because the CSX rail lines split where the station now sits, and the Cincinnati-to-Chicago route uses the other CSX lines that cross the Great Miami River near the city’s police headquarters.
- On the other hand, All Aboard Ohio Public Affairs Director Ken Prendergast said, while Hamilton officials are hoping to be along the “3-C” route that would link Cincinnati with Dayton, Springfield, Columbus and Cleveland, it’s more likely Amtrak would prefer — as it has in the past — to use Norfolk Southern Railway lines that run not through Hamilton but through Middletown.
If the city moved the historic station to another location, such as to the south near South Hamilton Crossing overpass of Grand Boulevard over the CSX tracks, or to the west along the route to Indiana, it could be used to serve Amtrak, Prendergast said.
Meanwhile, in good news for another Butler County city, “Amtrak has said they’re going to put in the station at Oxford,” Prendergast said. “They agreed to do it. Both the city and the university have agreed to fund it. I know they’re trying to get some more funding for a transit center next to that station site, too.”
CSX gave permission for Amtrak to stop there, Prendergast said.
Hamilton City Council is to decide May 26 whether to spend the $600,000 to move the station.
Asked what city funds would be drawn from to finance the move and a new concrete foundation for the building, city Finance Director Dave Jones told the Journal-News that was not known.
“We are currently working with the city’s auditors and outside legal counsel to determine an appropriate funding source that is both financially prudent and within any applicable legal and regulatory guidelines,” Jones said. “Among other potential funding sources, we have considered prospective amounts received by the American Rescue Plan, other ongoing city revenue sources, and the city’s general fund.”
The site Hamilton proposes to move the station to “is not in a location that can be used by the existing Amtrak station to Chicago, let alone the future service to Chicago,” Prendergast said. “At least, from the last time the 3-C was looked at, and certainly previous times, they’ve all looked at going through Middletown.”
If Amtrak would use a route through Hamilton rather than the Norfolk Southern line, it would be a less direct route with not necessarily more passengers, he said: “Sometimes you go out of your way a little bit if you feel like you can pick up enough ridership to justify it, but apparently there wasn’t enough ridership to justify going out of the way.”
Moeller said the city’s proposed relocation parcel “would be a good one for Hamilton. If Amtrak is interested in being part of the project, in any capacity, any location that meets the needs of partners would be great.”
Passenger-rail advocates hope Congress will approve legislation that pours money into Amtrak as part of a nationwide infrastructure plan, allowing the passenger rail entity to expand, including with five new routes in Ohio.
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