COLUMBUS, Ohio — The State of Ohio has established a Grade Crossing Elimination Program for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025. The program provides $100 million to assist Ohio communities in competing for grade crossing elimination grant funding from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Crossing Elimination Program.
Ohio’s has nearly 5,700 grade crossings. Since the Federal Railroad Administration began collecting blocked crossing data in late 2019, more than 10,500 reports for Ohio locations have been filed. For the first time, both state and federal funding are available specifically to mitigate these problems by crossings.
The goal of the program is to develop projects and secure funding to eliminate railroad crossings. Ohio communities will submit railroad crossing elimination projects to the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC), which will identify the projects with the best opportunities for federal funding and assist communities in developing these locations into competitive federal grant applications.
As envisioned, ORDC will classify projects into four categories:
- Projects that are ready for federal application. For projects in this category, ORDC will work with the community to develop the necessary documentation, funding proposals and preliminary engineering necessary to apply for federal construction funding.
- Projects that need additional development before they can be submitted as a federal application. For projects in this category, ORDC will assist the communities to perform the necessary planning studies to create a federal application.
- Projects that have significant public benefits but are not a good candidate for current federal discretionary grant opportunities. For projects in this category, ORDC will work to identify other funding for the project.
- Projects that do not meet state or federal program requirements.
The Ohio Rail Development Commission is an independent commission within the Ohio Department of Transportation which represents the state in non-regulatory interactions with the railroad industry.
When PA eliminated the last 4 or 5 crossings on the old PRR passenger line from Harrisburg to Philly [now used by Septa/Amtrak and local NS freight service], it was close to $30M at the time which was pre-2010. Therefore, the elimination of 100 problem grade crossings in Ohio could well use up the entire State & Federal funding.
If Ohio could eliminate 100 grade crossings a year it would take 57 years to become grade crossing free. Too ambitious? Probably!