CANTON, Ohio — The transit agency serving Canton has hired a consultant to study building a light-rail line between downtown Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Massillon Independent reports the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority has approved a contract with consultant WSP USA and envisions a six-month time frame for the study, which will examine the costs of land acquisition and construction, potential ridership, the number of people needed to run the service, and other issues. The study is expected to cost about $100,000.
Some of the proposed service would use an existing rail line owned by Akron’s Metro Regional Transit Authority, but new tracks would be needed to extend into downtown Akron. In its request for proposals, SARTA indicated that it wanted to examine the possibility of using trains powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
If the agency chooses to proceed based on the results of the study, it would apply for federal funds for at least 80% of the estimated $25 million to $50 million needed to build the line, which could be about 3 miles long in its first phase. Construction for that initial segment would likely take about two years.
A line connecting Cantin, Akron, and continuing to tower city in downtown Cleveland makes more sense.
Although I don’t see this happening any time soon I do think this could tie into bigger things in the future. If I’m correct this is a former B&O line that runs through Cuyahoga Valley N.P. and goes all the way into or near downtown Cleveland. The Cuyahoga Valley RR currently runs from Independence just south of downtown Cleveland to North Akron. It’s well known the CV wants to run into Cleveland. It wouldn’t be far fetched to see them in the shadows looking at Akron, Canton and the HOF.
Ask LeBron James to help pay for it.
I agree but I think you’ve got the wrong league.
Oh, John, I take back my comment (immediately above). I’d forgotten that LeBron is from Akron, or Canton, wherever. Sorry, the two things in the entire universe that I care the least about are basketball and LeBron.
I can save them the cost of the study. Short, token, pretend transit lines going nowhere and connected to nothing never work out. Milwaukee’s three mile long trolley line attracts riders only because it’s free. Detroit’s three mile long trolley accomplishes nothing except to bleed passengers from the city’s only viable bus route. Detroit’s hyper-expensive downtown people mover actually does serve a purpose – circulating people a mile around downtown, people who drive five or fifteen or twenty-five miles in a private autombile on the freeway to get to the central city area.
Often I think of what the New York City transit authority would look like if built today. Instead of hundreds of miles of well-patronized subway trains connecting everywhere to everywhere at relatively high speeds, it would be a trolley car stuck in traffic on Broadway going from 42nd Street to Lincoln Center.
So Charles, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is nowhere in your book? Also, cities have to start somewhere, you can’t build out full fledged systems from the get go, just look at San Diego, Portland, Seattle….
Gerald, you have channeled your inner John F. Kennedy. JFK famously said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
Actually, JFK was totally and absolutely wrong. In reality, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a firm plan on just how to reach that thousand miles.
Gerald, if you can show me the ultimately build-out plan for fully implemented Akron-Canton transit, beyond those three miles, then we can talk. Lacking such plan, I can only assume that Akron – Canton transit will live and die with that short, uneconomic route.
And yes, the NFLHOF is nowheresville in the scheme of supporting a trolley route. Akron – Canton is not Seattle or Portland or San Diego.