Will Lack of Curiosity Doom Ohio to Turtle Train Technology?

Will Lack of Curiosity Doom Ohio to Turtle Train Technology?

Senators, Representatives Express Curiosity in Tubular Rail

" Trackless Train" Company to Meet with Development Officials to Talk Jobs, Economic Development

by John Michael Spinelli

April 30, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Curiosity, it's long been said, killed the cat. But can lack of curiosity kill a state? For a state like Ohio, where legendary inventor heroes like Orville and Wilbur Wright and Thomas Alva Edison were born, believing the train technology of 1934, when the Burlington Zephyr, the first Diesel-electric streamliner in the US, topped out at 112 mph on a dawn to dusk run between Denver and Chicago, is as good as it gets does not bode well for its future.

Why would a state who says they champion innovation and name programs after the Wrights and Edison want to squander a billion or more dollars on a slow, costly system built on train-museum-era locomotives that even in 2010, when the first train may crawl out of hibernation to cross the state diagonally for the first time in 41 years, average 20 mph less than the Zephyr did on its historic run during our Great Depression?

It's a question that needs to be asked. Given Ohio's rhetoric on innovation and funding schemes designed to court the most innovative advancements in all industries, why is transportation reform such a taboo subject?

What state would want to broadcast to the world that it's stuck in the past when it comes to energy, education, medicine, information or any other industry for that matter? But that position, blindly defending old technology, is exactly what Gov. Strickland and his Transportation Director, Jolene Molitoris, are doing by refusing to consider any train technology that doesn't look, sound or perform like railroads from days of yore.

But a growing chorus of state senators who know the proposal to fund a train to the past, as many say the 3-C Corridor proposal is, is a bad idea at a bad time are penning letters of curiosity in anticipation of a meeting next week between Tubular Rail and state development officials is a no cost, no obligation query that should challenge the status quo on how we think about train technology.

Robert Pulliam, inventor and founder of Tubular Rail , based in Houston, Texas, will arrive in Columbus next week to make his case for why his patented technology, featured in the Discovery Channel show called "FutureTrains," can create manufacturing jobs and spur economic development while transporting people and goods in new ways.

As one connected statehouse insider said recently, if the state is going to spend all this money, shouldn't we at least buy something that's fast? By its own admission, the 3-C Corridor or Turtle Train, will only average 57 mph, a pathetic pace that will take longer than driving from Cleveland to Cincinnati, via Columbus and Dayton, and will leave passengers to fend for themselves once they reach their destination.

Sens. Jason Wilson (D-30th), ,Tim Grendell (R-18th) and Karen Gillmor (R-26th) have expressed their curiosity about Tubular Rail in a letter to Mark Barbash, Interim director of the Ohio Department of Development.

Verbal commitments for similar letters have been received from Sens. Fred Strahorn (D-5th), Robert Schuler (R-7th), John Carey (R-17th), Ray Miller (D-15th) and Tim Schaffer (R-31st) and Reps. Bob Hagan (D-60th) and Todd Book (D-89th). The bi-partisan lineup of senators and representatives curious about Tubular Rail's technology shows the bi-partisan nature of the need to reform transportation.

Sen. Gillmor, of Tiffin, has already written an article on why Ohio isn't likely to see so-called high-speed trains, like are common in Europe, here anytime soon. In her article, she says the proposal for a publicly subsidized passenger rail system is "undercooked" and missing many details that "confirm a rail system is needed or supported by the taxpayers who would foot the bill."

What we do know, she writes, is that officials say the system would cost $250 million to launch and require a state subsidy of $10 million each year. Continuing, she notes that, based on studies conducted by the Ohio Rail Commission in 2004 and 2007, "the system would likely cost be between $1 billion and $1.3 billion after adjusting for inflation and only run "at speeds of up to 69 miles per hour along existing freight tracks," a speed that is "unlikely to be much faster than highway travel."

Gillmor and other members of the General Assembly who are asking development officials to be as curious about Tubular Rail as they are, are in line with the campaign goals of Transportation for America, a coalition of housing, environmental, public health, urban planning, transportation, equitable development and other organizations who say Americans need transportation options that are "cheaper, faster and cleaner" than the current system of transportation they say leave "too many older, younger and rural Americans stranded."

Ohio needs to be future-ready. By developing and employing a new, energy efficient train transportation system that could reduce road congestion, travel fast, go places where conventional railroads cannot, and be built by Ohio manufacturers, Buckeyes can stake a claim on their future without waiting for some other state, or country, to do the heavy lifting first.

Being a leader means doing something first. Ohio, who has yet to walk away from its reputation as a "rust-belt" state and who frets each day that more more layoffs from automakers will further complicate its already shaky budget picture, should spend a little time, and maybe even a few funds to see of Tubular Rail technology is all Mr. Pulliam and others say it is.

The Wright thing to do is be curious. Gov. Strickland and Director Molitoris would do well to be more curious. Lack of curiosity could kill the state.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com