Columbus Airport Connection Corridor Summary

Route Description: One of the local possibilities that would present itself given the Passenger Terminal in Columbus would be to connect to John Glenn International Airport (CMH) to provide shuttle service to and from the terminal. Trackage exists that provides a route from the Greater Columbus Convention Center to the south border of the CMH property. With the planned updates to the CMH terminal, the timing is great to plan for light rail transport over this route.

With no infrastructure updates, the travel time from the Passenger Terminal to CMH would be approximately 30 minutes. Accommodations would need to be made at CMH to either route the train to the terminal or provide bus shuttle service.

Route Details: The route proposed here departs the Columbus Passenger Terminal eastbound at CP 138 and enters the Ohio Central Railroad Newark Branch. The CMH property abuts the Newark Branch at milepost 130.2.

Opportunities for Upgrades and Operational Improvements: The biggest challenges to this route are functional. Train operations over this section of track are managed by track warrant – there are no signals and the switches along the route are hand throw. This route also serves and the primary thoroughfare between the Ohio Central Railroad operations in Newark, Ohio and the CSX and Norfolk Southern yards in South Columbus, so freight operations would need to be managed to minimize interruptions in passenger service. For example, present practice is for freight traffic to stage at CP 138 (the proposed location of the Passenger Terminal) while waiting for a route to either of the South Columbus yards, effectively blocking what would be the passenger route between Columbus and CMH.