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 increasing the Ohio Rail Development Commission's budget.

From the Synopsis

Adopts the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact (which was first adopted in 2002, but repealed in 2013). As part of the Compact, creates the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission, and enacts provisions governing the Commission's powers and duties.

Prescribes the appointing authorities for Ohio's four members on the Commission, consistent with the Compact.

Earmarks $25,000 in each fiscal year under GRF ALI 776465, Rail Development, to pay for the costs associated with Ohio joining the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact.

The Ohio House Finance committee has adopted HB96 the omnibus which includes HC_136_2392 - "Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact"

Which aims to "promote development and implementation of improvements to intercity passenger rail service in the Midwest; to coordinate interaction among Midwestern state elected officials and their designees on passenger rail issues; and to promote development and implementation of long-range plans for high speed rail passenger service in the Midwest.

We'll share more details as they come.

As a reminder this will then pass to the full House for vote on April 9th, 2025. The Senate will work on its budget process in the next weeks in parallel.

The full text can be found here

An update on the push for passenger rail in Ohio

1. We turned support for the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission into a bipartisan topic in the Ohio House of Representatives! This is clear from all that we've been hearing. At this time we can finish reaching out to representatives.

2. At this point request for amendments has been closed - we'll now wait and see what the finished bill looks like.

3. Challenge: There's heavy concern that strong opposition from a Senator will cause funding for MIPRC to be excluded from the Ohio state operating budget.

   1. This opposition is despite the over 1,000 calls and emails made by Ohio constituents to their Representatives and Senators and dozens of meetings by our advocates with Senators and Representatives.

   2. The possibility of opposition in the senate may cause the provision to be pre-emptively removed from the House sub-bill. This is clearly AGAINST the far-reaching support that Ohio constituents voiced.

   3. All Aboard Ohio is working on our senate engagement plan now. Ultimately every single senator will need to understand the importance of MIPRC and funding for ORDC as well as the immense support that was shared with the House.

   4. Please feel free to call your senators as able and express your support.

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!

It’s a big morning. We’re keeping an eye on final pushes for the omnibus which will amend the state budget.

This is the time to make your final calls to legislators before it’s too late to make changes.

The reality is that at this point the work on the omnibus is happening behind closed doors, we won’t have visibility to it until final versions are made public. That means that we don’t know if the hundreds of calls really pushed passenger rail over the line for this Ohio state budget. With calls today we can at least make sure we were not able to be ignored!

Big note that our allaboardohio.org/advocacy website has crossed 1,100 visits today! That's going to be one of our best indicators of the minimum number of contacts that have been made to legislators to support passenger rail in Ohio via the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission and funding of the Ohio Rail Development Commission.

Social Media Record! We've crossed 100,000 accounts reached across social media platforms between our posts and partners with the majority of those being views from Ohio residents.

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.

Leader Antonio has let us know that the Senate is also hearing significant constituent engagement on passenger rail funding. This means we've expanded beyond the Ohio House in our reach.

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

An email from the High Speed Rail Alliance is out. High Speed Rail Alliance started as an organization from the Midwest and has strong ties to the region. They are requesting support for the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission inclusion in the State Operating Budget.

A nice touch in their email: "Budget Perspective: This investment [MIPRC] is only 0.0000543% of Ohio's annual state budget—a negligible expense with significant economic impact."

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!

We're seeing strong support out of Crestline, Ohio. Crestline is vying for an Amtrak station on the proposed 3C&D passenger rail route. Dozens of phone calls from there alone! On March 6th, 2025 Mayor Pitt of Crestline joined the team at All Aboard Ohio for our Passenger Rail Day of Advocacy at the Statehouse. During that day our coalition met with more than 50 lawmakers prepping them for the call to action that Ohio residents are making known right now.

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