Transcriber: nolan shields Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
My name is Stu, and I love trains.
(Laughter)
And no, you haven't stumbled into a 12-step program for rail fans.
(Laughter)
But since confession is part of the 12-step process
I have to confess something, sincerely, to all of you.
(Sighs)
I fell off the wagon at a very tragically, at a very early age.
It was really something that I didn't expect,
but I have photographic proof.
That's me at age nine, climbing up into the cab
of a Canadian National Railways passenger locomotive.
And as anybody that knows me is very quick to say,
I haven't been the same since.
I have been a passionate advocate for passenger rail
and for public transportation ever since then.
And I really want to try and get everybody to realize
that this is something that we really need to start thinking about.
I mean, I have been living in a city for 28 years now
that has no passenger rail.
And people ask me,
"How can you be such an advocate for it
if you're living in a city that doesn't have it
and hasn't had it for 35 years?"
So let me turn that around a little bit.
Why are we all living in a city that doesn't have that connection?
And shouldn't we have that connection?
Ohio really needs to start moving people as great as it does freight,
and we'll get to the freight aspect of it in a little bit.
But we really need to start moving people at least as well, if not better.
Why? Well, let me give you a couple of demographics.
Millennials.
They are one of the fastest-growing segments in our population.
Next year, they will be the majority of eligible voters
in the United States of America in 2015.
Think about that.
They are game changers. They are a force to be reckoned with.
They make their decisions, more and more,
based on the availability of public transportation,
of whether it's trains, buses, bikes, walkable neighborhoods, whatever.
They want that. They drive less.
They buy fewer cars.
Baby boomers.
Yes, you may find it hard to believe that this svelte, youthful body ...
(Laughter)
... is a baby boomer.
I was born in 1950.
But, we're a different generation as well.
We're not retiring like our parents did.
Many of us still want to be mobile.
Many of us want to be connected just like the millennials do.
I've got two daughters that I would consider millennials.
And, as boomers, we want to keep active. Some of us want to keep working.
We've got things we want to do.
Among the things, if we're working, is business travel.
I can't really see a show of hands out there,
but how many of you have had the delightful experience
of flying from Columbus to Chicago and back?
Yeah, okay. I thought so.
Anyways, well, the best way I can describe this
is a friend of mine who's a l lawyer here in town.
And he says every time he has to fly to Chicago,
it takes eight years out of his life - er, or eight hours,
might as well seem like eight years,
but eight hours out his life.
And it's really not the most efficient thing
to be walking through a TSA line
and hoping that the flight doesn't get delayed.
So what are we going to do about that?
How are we going to break down those barriers, so to speak?
Well, here's a good start.
Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission has come up with a plan
along with our counterparts over in Indiana
and in other cities in Ohio
to start up a system of 12 110-mile-an-hour trains every day
between Columbus and Chicago.
An express train that would get you from downtown Columbus to Chicago
in under four hours.
Wi-Fi equipped, productive travel times,
things that you can do on board and get business done
or just relax and watch the countryside go by.
We have mayors of all of the cities, including Mayor Coleman here in Columbus;
we have MORPC which is the local metropolitan planning organization or MPO
and their counterparts all along the line
that are backing grant requests for a Tier 1 environmental impact study.
So we've got the chance to move people.
Great. And it's just a start.
And it should be considered just a start.
We move freight wonderfully.
Everything you consume, everything you can imagine:
lumber, cars,
those Christmas gifts that you're about to buy for this year,
all probably rolled through Ohio or Columbus on a train.
We've got three major intermodal yards in Ohio.
Two high-speed freight routes.
New economic development and jobs that have resulted from it.
So what can you do? What kind of a change can you make?
You can find a train and ride it.
Get out there and have the experience,
and then come back and make it an issue with leaders.
We've got brand new elected officials here.
And we can make this an issue, and let them know that you support it.
Don't be satisfied.
Don't be satisfied with a mealy-mouthed answer.
Don't be satisfied with what you experience on the train.
We can do better.
And do it because -
You know, people ask me why do I want to do it,
and I want to do it because I want to leave behind a legacy.
I do this not in the realization that I will some day
be able to ride a train out of downtown Columbus,
but I do want my daughters,
and my five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter
to have that experience some day.
And I want them to step on a train some day
and think of that picture that you see before you,
and say, "My dad, or my grandfather, made that happen."
I hope you can all leave a legacy behind like that
for whatever you have a passion for.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
(Cheers)
Host: So, as host I can ask a question.
So, what actually goes through Columbus on rails if it's not people?
Stu Nicholson: Just about everything you can imagine.
Containerized freight, coal, lumber.
If you really want to see an idea
of how economy of the United States is moving,
sit and watch a train go by.
Look at what's on it.
Coiled steel. Lumber.
I remember after Hurricane Katrina,
I could look out at a train and see car after car after car of lumber
moving into the disaster zone to rebuild homes.
All of that coiled steel is going to appliances,
it's going to the automobile industry.
There's a lot of stuff, and we move it so well.
Why can't we move ourselves like that?
Host: Good question. Thank you very much.
(Applause)