Advocates say Ohio 3C could generate 8,000 jobs

Job creation has become a key argument for rail advocates, including Ohio Secretary of Transportation Jolene Molitoris, who got their chance July 12 at the Dayton Rotary Club to rebut an earlier presentation by state Sen. Jon Husted, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Husted, R-Kettering, and
many other Republicans in the Ohio legislature say the proposed 250-mile 3C
Corridor Passenger Rail Service from Cincinnati to Cleveland will be too slow
and too little used to justify its taxpayer price tag of $400 million in
federal stimulus funds and another $17 million in annual state operating
subsidies. The plan includes stops in Dayton, Riverside and Springfield.

But Molitoris told the 300
or so Rotary luncheon attendees that "jobs (are) what this project is all
about. That’s why it’s so important to take that $400 million we competed for
(in federal stimulus funds) and have you help us invest it in a way to get the
biggest (economic) benefit."

In the spring, the State
Controlling Board approved by a 4-3 vote $25 million of the federal stimulus
funds to pay consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff for a detailed plan of the track
improvements and coordination with freight service needed for the 3C Corridor.

The state board, where
Republicans hold the deciding vote, still has to approve the additional $375
million in project money before construction can begin, probably within the
next year or two. If the board votes no, the $375 million would revert to the Federal
Rail Administration to be awarded to another state vying for passenger rail
service funds.

As the Senate Majority
Leader, Husted has said repeatedly that not enough Ohioans will ride a rail
service that takes six hours and 30 minutes to travel from Cincinnati to Cleveland.
Rail advocates, however, say those numbers are only preliminary estimates and
that the results of the Parsons Brinckerhoff study will put the 3C Corridor
service in a much better light.

ODOT officials estimate the
new rail service and its eight train stops will generate 8,000 jobs. Longer
range, they’re hoping it will help revive Ohio’s ailing rail manufacturing
industry and get it back on track in time to take advantage of the rebirth of
passenger rail service across America.

Molitoris cited a study
released by Policy Matters Ohio and the Appollo Alliance — both bipartisan
green technology advocate groups — that show Ohio ranks fifth in the nation in
the number of businesses serving the rail industry, with 226 companies and
26,000 employees. The study projected that Amtrak alone will need 300 to 340
new locomotives in the next 20 years and that the rail industry in general will
need 250,000 train cars in the next 30 years.

Molitoris said 36 of those
rail supply companies are in the Dayton region and 11 are in the Miami Valley,
including the Dayton-Phoenix Group, a manufacturer of locomotive parts based in
Old North Dayton.

Gale Kooken, chief
executive of Dayton-Phoenix Group, said the 3C Corridor could help his company
in the long run, but for now, it serves primarily the freight rail industry and
it is being clobbered by what he called unfair foreign competition.

Since 2008, the company has
lost 140 employees and its total revenues have dropped about 45 percent — from
$100 million to about $60 million expected for this year. It currently employs
about 320 people, including 270 in its Dayton plant, he said.

Kooken said his firm is
hard-pressed to compete with manufacturers in countries such as India, where
they have copied Dayton-Phoenix products and then imposed a 34 percent import
duty to keep his own company from competing in their market.

"What government can
do for us is to just give us a level playing field — that’s all we ask — and
we can compete in those countries based on the reliability and quality of our
products," he said.