Buried in the underbrush at the bottom-center of this view are the tracks that could deliver Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad trains to this site for a potential Downtown Cleveland station. This view was taken from the Lorain-Carnegie Hope Memorial Bridge. A proposed CVSR station below this bridge was recommended by Bedrock Real Estate which is building the Global Peak Performance Center at lower left and owns riverfront land beyond (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Extension study to be released by NOACA Friday
Except for one brief instruction, property-owning freight railroad CSX Transportation didn’t participate in a feasibility study for extending the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad‘s (CVSR) passenger trains into Downtown Cleveland. But that instruction, described as “a gold-plated” request, forced the study team to conclude that the CVSR extension would not be feasible — for now.
That finding is what the study team is due to present at this Friday’s regular board meeting of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), a metropolitan planning organization which sponsored the feasibility study.
According to sources who spoke to NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity, the team is also likely to inform the NOACA board that there is still hope for being able to work something out with CSX to get them to scale down their demand.
NOACA’s consulting team included local law firm Gateway Group led by Tom Chema and global engineering firm AECOM which has an office downtown. They reportedly attempted to engage CSX through the railroad’s Public Projects process. No one from NOACA or the consulting team would discuss the report with NEOtrans until the study was presented to the NOACA board.
Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad service (the red line) could be extended 9 miles north of their current northern terminus at Rockside Road in Independence to Downtown Cleveland (the blue line). About 7 miles of that is CSX right of way, 1.5 miles of National Park Service railroad and 1.4 miles of Bedrock Real Estate-owned track to which CSX has an easement (Google).
“After numerous attempts were made to engage CSX in the Study, a CSX Government Affairs official advised that CSX would not participate directly in the Study and that CSX would not provide a Right-of-Entry permit onto railroad property for an on-site inspection to be performed,” the feasibility study reported.
“CSX indicated that the Study should assume that new tracks and signals with Positive Train Control (PTC) would need to be installed providing sufficient capacity for passenger and freight operation including yard switching,” noted the study.
Replacing 9 miles of CSX tracks between CVSR’s Rockside Station in suburban Independence and a potential station site in the Flats south of Downtown Cleveland along with installing the costly, interactive, satellite-based traffic control system caused the start-up capital cost for the project to balloon up to $194.1 million in 2025 dollars.
Property ownership is identified here in the area where a Downtown Cleveland station for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad could be located. The proposed station site is approximately where Parcel 19 is shown. North is to the left on this map (AECOM).
That had cascading impact on the benefit/cost analysis. If the capital cost was reasonable, the analysis would likely be positive, sources said. If CSX’s demand for Positive Train Control was removed and existing track was rebuilt to a federal standard that allows passenger trains to operate at up 60 mph north of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, it could cut the cost by about 65 percent to about $68 million. CVSR trains travel at 25 mph through the park.
A CSX spokesperson did not respond to a NEOtrans e-mail sent to the company’s communications department seeking comment prior to publication of this article.
But the study team reportedly hasn’t given up. They proposed CSX donating or selling their right of way, including a narrow strip for a CVSR-only track next to its Clark Yard near Steelyard Commons. South of the yard to where the National Park Service-owned track begins near the Route 21 overpass in Valley View, CSX uses the line only about two times per week to serve lumber and cement customers.
A Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train arrives at Rockside Station in Independence to pick up passengers. The train is coming from the south and goes no further north. But that could change if CSX can be convinced to work with local interests seeking to extend service to Downtown Cleveland (KJP).
Under that scenario, CSX would retain access to a publicly owned railroad corridor but on what’s called a temporal, or time-based separation. Freight trains would operate at night and CVSR trains during the day, potentially negating the need for installing Positive Train Control.
A passenger-only track built next to Clark Yard would extend north across a vacated track space on CSX’s two-track-wide drawbridge over the Cuyahoga River below Interstate 490. That would allow passenger trains to avoid interfering with freight train operations at and near Clark Yard. A rail-rail junction called Jennings Crossing below the Harvard-Denison Bridge would require enhanced signal systems protecting that location, however.
According to sources, CSX rebuffed the team’s overtures because they doubted their seriousness. There is no capital funding allocated or even pledged to the project. That seriousness could be communicated by setting aside an amount of capital funding for it, they said.
Looking north from near where CSX right of way begins, below Granger Road in Valley View. Two CSX freight customers are located here and are serviced by a freight train about two times a week. This location is about 1.5 miles north of CVSR’s northern terminus at Rockside Road (Google).
Another issue is a less-than-ideal station location for CVSR in Downtown Cleveland. Study team members wanted riders of CVSR and potential commuter trains north of the national park to have convenient pedestrian access to downtown attractions, employers and Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) buses and trains.
One option was to restore tracks so passenger trains could have a riverside station just below Tower City Center. Another was to reach the former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad depot, 829 Canal Rd., which is a short walk to the Waterfront Line’s Settlers Landing station. And building CVSR track next to the to-be-vacated Canal Road, climbing at a 2 percent gradient up to rapid transit track level at Tower City, apparently would be too steep.
From Bedrock’s recommended downtown CVSR station site, Google Earth shows it is an 1,800-foot walk to Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse via a to-be-restored Eagle Avenue ramp and nearly twice as far to Public Square via a to-be-rerouted Canal Road.
Looking north on CSX below Interstate 490. The briefly raised CSX drawbridge over the Cuyahoga River is in the background. Behind the camera is CSX’s Clark Yard. A second passenger-only track would need to be built here and across the drawbridge which has a second, unused track space on it (Google).
Officials at CVSR, a nonprofit educational organization, have said that a ridership market for the Cleveland extension they want to tap is to offer educational programs for Cleveland school students. Having a public transportation link to CVSR is important to providing affordable access, they said. Lower-income residents of Greater Cleveland also do not now have easy access to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
But Bedrock Real Estate representatives reportedly told the study team that restoring track to Tower City or the B&O station, both of which they own, would not fit in with their riverfront redevelopment plans. Two years ago, Bedrock gained ownership of the former CSX right of way north of Interstate 490 but CSX retains an easement.
Prior to this week’s scheduled NOACA presentation, the study was distributed to about 30 people at CVSR, Cleveland City Hall, Cuyahoga County, GCRTA, National Park Service, Cleveland Metroparks, Port of Cleveland and Canalway Partners.
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