Photo: Could Cincinnati’s first railroad line get a new lease on life from Amtrak?If it were up to you, where would you put Cincinnati’s main passenger station? According to this article, if you were Amtrak, you might put it at the Montgomery Inn Boat House.
While Cincinnati already has a (very famous) passenger station, the issues that plagued it have never really gone away. Ever since it was built Union Terminal has been stuck with the fact that its quite a distance between it and downtown. Walking is not possible, and it is stuck in the middle of the very industrial Mill Creek Valley. Amtrak currently runs the Cardinal through Union Terminal, using the only availible platfrom. However its continued use of the terminal for the 3C Service remains in doubt.
The real issue is, unlike many cities, Cincinnati has never had a rail station within its central business district. The hills around the city forced railroads to either come down the Mill Creek Valley or make the long detour east and up the Little Miami river valley. The one railroad that tried, the CL&N, had to deal with a 3.5% decent down the Deer Creek Valley into Cincinnati. Although they were rewarded with probably one of the most centrally located of the stations at Court Street.
Photo: PRR at Pearl and Butler Streets (Source).
In fact, building a new Amtrak station at the Boathouse would be coming full circle. The PRR‘s famous Pearl Street Station was located just west of the site. The nearby yard would eventually become Sawyer Point.
The station, constructed in 1881, was not the first constructed on the site but the most well remembered. It was shared between the PRR and the L&N with the L&N coming in on a sharp curve from their nearby bridge. The building was modernized and expanded a number of times with its final demise coming with the construction of Union Terminal in 1933.
Building a station at the end of the Oasis branch is not without its drawbacks, however. The line would need to be modernized to allow a higher track speed, and connections to the rest of the city’s rail system are limited. Any train going to Columbus would have to take Oasis to the ex-PRR Richmond line and then to Norfolk Southern’s Dayton District. Additionally, the train would have to back down the entire Oasis line with nowhere to turn until the wye at Oakley. While this might not be a problem for the 3C train which terminates in Cincinnati, it may be a problem for the Cardinal, which comes into and leaves the city on different routes.
Yet there are not that many better options for a new rail station in Cincinnati. The grades down the ex-CL&N have not changed, the new Riverfront Transit Center would need still need a new ROW constructed just to get to it, and Union Terminal is just as far from downtown as ever. So what would you suggest? Where’s the best place for rail in the Queen City?
Update 1: Here’s a story discussing more about the route and also mentions a similar station problem in Columbus.
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My vote would be for the Riverfront Transit Center, which starts right where the old Central Union Deopt once stood at 3rd Street and Central Avenue. A single approach track remains to the north of Longworth Hall and ends just under I-75. The few blocks between there and the transit center is just parking lot, so restoring a route through there wouldn’t be difficult. There’s still a question about how to turn around trains, but there’s plenty more opportunities to do that in Queensgate than in the East End or Linwood.
Comment by Jeffrey Jakucyk — May 6, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
I agree that the transit center gives you a nice location in-between the river and downtown, but you still have to deal with the congestion of the Mill Creek Valley to get there. That seems to be half of Amtrak’s reason for turning down Union Terminal (the other half being distance).
Also you’re limited to 1 track there which kind of hurts the expansion possibilities.
I suppose I can see the pro’s and con’s to all these options.
Comment by Kyle Montgomery — May 6, 2009 @ 6:13 pm
I feel that a modern Amtrak station location just East of the Montgomery Inn Boathouse on Riverside Drive makes alot of sense. The short L&N Bridge track could be rebuilt to reconnect the CSX mainline at Newport following Saratoga Street to the Oasis line at Sawyer Point. Amtrak’s eastbound Cardinal could then be re-routed to avoid Mill Creek freight traffic altogether by entering the Norfolk Southern tracks at Hamilton and continuing on through WestChester, Springdale, Amberley Vilage, Norwood, Oakley, then following the Oasis Line to the new Riverside Drive station. There would be no need to turn the train around since the Cardinal could then continue onward across the L&N bridge and to the CSX mainline eastbound toward Maysville. The same route would apply in reverse for the westbound Cardinal. The lack of freight traffic on the Oasis line would allow higher speed travel through the city. The available storage tracks along Riverside Drive for C3 trains, the close proximity to the Downtown business district, stadiums, Interstate highways, riverfront, and the upscale neighborhood all make this an ideal location that Cincinnati can be proud of for years to come.
Comment by John Maxwell — June 20, 2010 @ 8:29 am