County seeks federal funding for Elyria Amtrak station move

Lorain County Transit is actively negotiating with Amtrak on a $10 million plan to move Elyria's Amtrak station to the Lorain County Transportation Center. Concepts and hopes of moving the station into the building at 40 East Ave. in downtown Elyria have persisted since the county bought the building in 2000, but past plans never got the necessary backing and funding to move beyond that. That could be set to change, Lorain County Transit Manager Kirt Conrad said Thursday, as Amtrak has presented a $10 million plan to bring the idea to life, already committing $5 million in funding for that project. Whether this proposal will be different, Conrad said, comes down to whether the county can secure additional funding from the Federal Railroad Administration. In March, Lorain County Transit applied for a $4 million from the administration which would provide a bulk of the funding that the project would need to move forward. "Assuming we get that, we are negotiating an MOU (memorandum of understanding) right now with Amtrak," Conrad said. "If everything goes right, hopefully we will be under construction by late 2027, early 2028." If approved, that grant would require a 20 percent match from the county. That would amount to $800,000 in additional funding, enough to nearly make the project fully funded. Conrad said that the Ohio Rail Development Commission has already committed to providing $100,000 of the county's required match, and the county is also in negotiations with the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, or NOACA, to help pay the match. The latest plan to use the transportation center was first announced by Amtrak two years ago, in May 2024. Under the plan, which was designed by Amtrak, stairs and escalators would be built out of the back of the transportation center up to the tracks, where they would connect to a new platform to be built on the south side of the Norfolk Southern-owned tracks. That platform would be uncovered, but sheltered seating and bathrooms would be available inside the transportation center below. Currently, the Elyria Amtrak stop is essentially just a concrete slab that sits on the side of the tracks just to the east of the transportation center, across the East Bridge Street rail bridge. Elyria had an indoor waiting area at its Amtrak station in the past, but after that building burned down in 2013, it was never replaced. Because Amtrak's trains between Cleveland and Chicago usually pass through Elyria in the early hours of the morning, residents are seldom aware of how many train passengers pass through their city. In reality, Conrad said, Elyria is the third busiest Amtrak station in Ohio, behind only Toledo and Cleveland. "We are actually busier than Cincinnati, isn't that crazy?" Conrad said. "Something like 14,000 people get on that train in the middle of the night here." Conrad said that usage could be set to increase even further, as rail use advocacy group All Aboard Ohio is currently lobbying members of Congress to support a proposed new rail line between Detroit and New York City called the "Great Lakes Limited." Like the popular Cleveland to Chicago line, this proposed line would also stop in Elyria, but unlike the existing route it would do so in the afternoon, rather than overnight. Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker, who said he has written letters in support of the Great Lakes Limited concept, said that using the transportation center would allow Amtrak passengers to much more easily patronize downtown businesses, especially if the new daytime stops are added. "With all the good things that are happening downtown, when people stop, they don't just need to sit on a bench while they wait to be picked up," Brubaker said. "There are actually things to do in downtown Elyria. Obviously that is predicated on the time of the train, because if you get in at 4 a.m. then there won't be much to do really in any city, but if it is 4 o'clock in the afternoon, then there are all kinds of things going on downtown." Brubaker said that he did not think the city would be able to help fund the project, but that he had offered whatever other assistance he could provide to Amtrak and the county. "Using the transportation center is the right thing to do, and I can't commit dollars, but I can commit help like having police officers in the area when the train stops and things like that," he said. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.