Kasich shouldn't block high-speed rail tracks

Kasich shouldn't block high-speed rail tracks
Published October 07, 2010 Toledo Blade
Marilou Johanek

WHEN the high-speed or medium-speed train pulls out of the station, Ohio won't be on it if Republican John Kasich wins the gubernatorial election. He is adamant that expansion of passenger rail service in the state will go nowhere if he's governor.

Mr. Kasich isn't the only GOP hopeful who vows to derail one of President Obama's signature initiatives to modernize the nation's transportation system. The high-speed rail project envisions development of the country's first bullet train, whisking passengers between major cities and states in much the way high-speed rail has kept other industrialized powers moving.

But Mr. Kasich, like a handful of other Republicans running for governor in other states, is in lockstep with his party - which has habitually resisted all policy objectives sought by the White House. He derides the plan to connect Ohio's largest cities with passenger trains that, he says, won't go fast enough and won't do anything for the state but waste taxpayer dollars.

No doubt Mr. Kasich aims to stand out as the fiscally reasonable candidate in the election. But it makes little fiscal sense for him to dismiss an alternative means of transportation that could pay big dividends in Ohio.

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