CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW

The final version of Ohio’s state budget is being locked in, and the news for passenger rail is alarming.

Funding for Ohio to rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC) has been cut.

The requirement for a passenger rail representative on the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC)? Also gone.

We're tracking the Ohio Senate budget recommendation which has just been posted. We're looking for any changes to ORDC (The Ohio Rail Development Commission) and that the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission stays in the budget.

Will Report Back Soon

Update! The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission has been voted on and passed the House in the Ohio Operating Budget. Now the Senate will work on it's budget process where we hope to see support for MIPRC and continued support of the Ohio Rail Development Commission's budget.

We've just learned the amendment for MIPRC is NOT YET IN THE omnibus amendment!! CALL NOW! Senator teams have reached out and have noticed - but we need to make sure they push it into the budget. If you are asked on a phone call what amendment this is please mention it is hc_136_2101. We're so close we need to push now more than ever!

We need to help coordinate the teams in the statehouse to push this in!

We can now confirm that every legislator on the House Finance Committee has been contacted by passenger rail supporters from across Ohio. This is momentous. The finance committee is the main driver of the State Operating Budget.

The committee reviews, amends, and approves the budget before it moves to the full House for a vote.

We're also seeing requests for amendment language and amendment numbers if we're aware. We're checking now to see what those are.

A great article from the Columbus Underground on the lack of passenger rail funding in the Ohio state budget was posted today - check it out! Passenger Rail Funds Dropped from State Budget - Columbus Underground

"All Aboard Ohio Executive Director John Esterly told Columbus Underground that membership in MIRPC is a simple and cost-effective step toward improving the passenger rail experience for Ohioans."

We're hearing from legislative teams on both sides of the aisle that we're being heard and work is underway to reintroduce MIPRC into the Ohio State Budget. This is the time to make those extra calls and emails to help us cross the line today!

• Most representatives now know about the importance of MIPRC.

• We heard from one team that the organization of All Aboard Ohio and all the supporters in Ohio has been outstanding

How do next steps work?

The omnibus amendment process is a critical step in amending the Ohio state budget. It allows lawmakers to consolidate numerous proposed changes into a single, comprehensive amendment. This approach streamlines the legislative process by addressing multiple issues at once, rather than debating each amendment individually.

The omnibus amendment should be submitted by noon Thursday, April 3rd following public comment in the morning and it should then be adopted by the House Finance Committee on Tuesday, April 8th. That will then move the budget to the full House for a vote. We'd expect for the full State Operating Budget to then be approved on Wednesday, April 9th.

Even though the final house vote is a week away it's important to get MIPRC and ORDC support included in the omnibus now so it can carry through the process over the next days. The reality is that much of the omnibus will be decided on today by 4pm. Calling and emailing your legislators is the most important thing to do to support passenger rail in Ohio.

A post on Reddit from a user is gaining a lot of traction in the /Ohio subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Ohio/s/meq9xLgAHs

Starting the day with a second call to action on Instagram. Our Instagram post yesterday crossed 450 likes. Also seeing follower counts climb across platforms as more people notice the call to action and show their support for passenger rail by calling legislators.

This blog post from March 7th, 2025 recaps the many coalition members who attended Passenger Rail Day of Advocacy at the Ohio Statehouse

8pm update - we've crossed 350 visits to our advocacy website. Our web traffic is showing a huge surge from Ohio.

It's 6pm and we're getting a first look at how our call to action is working after the first 3 hours. A few notes:

1. 240 people have visited our advocacy page so far. Most are clicking links to find their legislators phone numbers

2. We've crossed 10,000 people reached via @allaboardohio's social media!

3. Anecdotally we're hearing from folks that legislative offices are taking note, remarking that the calls just before was also about passenger rail.

Momentum is starting to build as we engage Ohio residents!

Hayden Clarkin, @the_transit_guy on X with over 124,000 followers has posted about All Aboard Ohio's call to action. We're excited to see our social media partners taking action.

Our social media action campaign has started. Find us on Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Threads @allaboardohio

Our team has had a chance to scan documents. There's 4491 pages in this State Operating Budget.

1. We do not see support for the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission - stay tuned for resources on how to support asking for amendments to include this.

2. We see that funding for the Ohio Rail Development Commission has been sustained at 6 million. This is fine though if it can be increased that would be good.

Our team is starting to review the budget and change documents to see if funding for the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission is included as well as that Ohio Rail Development Commission funding is sustained or increased this year. Hang tight we'll have answers soon.

We've just received word that the House State operating budget sub bill has been posted online. You can see it here: House Bill 96 Documents | 136th General Assembly | Ohio Legislature. Also the comp document: lsc.ohio.gov/budget/136/main-operating-budget/as-pending-in-house-committee