RESOLUTION URGING AMTRAK TO RETAIN ITS CINCINNATI TICKET ‘TAKERS AND FOR HAMILTON COUNTY TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT TO WORK IN COOPERATION WITH OTHER SOUTHWEST OHIO STAKEHOLDERS TO UNDERTAKE A PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN OF THE RENOVATED MUSEUM CENTER AT CINCINNATI UNION TERMINAL AND THE PASSENGER RAIL SERVICES AND DESTINATIONS AVAILABLE FROM IT ‘WHEREAS, Amtrak, a government-owned enterprise whose mission is to provide nationwide passenger rail service as a public service, is achieving record idership having carried 31.7 million passengers in 2017. If it were an airline, Amtrak would be the nation’s fifth-largest carrier as ranked by domestic travelers. Amtrak also is attaining record financial performance by covering 94 percent of its operating costs with customer revenues in 2017; and WHEREAS, Congress through its Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2018, increased passenger rail capital improvement funding by $1.3 billion complemented by $20 million in additional operating funding now available through the Federal Railroad Administration's Restoration & Enhancement program; and WHEREAS, Amtrak is undertaking budget cuts across its 21,300-mile national system including eliminating staffing by June § at all stations with 40 or fewer passengers per day. Amtrak staff sells tickets, checks baggage, loads and unloads heavy suitcases and boxes on/off trains, assists passengers including the elderly and disabled and provides the first line of security for Amtrak travelers; and WHEREAS, stations that will lose ticket agents in these cutbacks are Charleston, WV; Cincinnati, OH; Fort Madison, IA; Garden City, KS; Hammond, LA; Havre, MT; La Junta, CO; Lamy, NM; Marshall, TX; Meridian, MS; Ottumwa, IA; Shelby, MT; Texarkana, AR; Topeka, KS; and Tuscaloosa, AL. Cincinnati is unlike any other city in this list. It is a major metro area with 2 million people; and WHEREAS, Cincinnati's station, which is open and staffed every night except overnight Monday-Tuesday, was used by 11,382 passengers in 2017, or 36.4 passengers for the 313 days the station was open in 2017. By comparison, there were 12,481 passengers who used the Cincinnati Amtrak station in 2016, or 40 passengers per day. In 2015, it was used even more — by 12,503 passengers; and WHEREAS, Amtrak serves Cincinnati with its Cardinal route offering 32 station stops such as New York, Washington, White Sulphur Springs WV, Charleston, and Indianapolis but has only one train in each direction three times a week and is (034147100000244833-4855-4087v1-6/1/18,scheduled to stop at Cincinnati westbound on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturday at 1:41 a.m. and eastbound on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 3:27 a.m, Amtrak's inconvenient service to Cincinnati is the primary reason why so few use it; and WHEREAS, the timing of the decline in Amtrak ridership at Cincinnati below 40 passengers coincides with the $215 million renovations to Cincinnati Union Terminal which has moved Amtrak's waiting room and ticket office into a temporary, modular facility at 1251 Kenner Street, an alley on the north side of CUT which has little parking and is not easy to find; and WHEREAS, All Aboard Ohio, a statewide rail and transit advocacy association, believes that Amtrak passengers in Southwest Ohio are avoiding or delaying taking the train until the CUT renovations are complete in fall 2018 due to concerns about security, parking, or the long, circuitous walk that is required from the temporary station to the permanent trackside platform where passengers board the train (see All Aboard Ohio flier at ww.allaboardohio.org,) NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District (“HCTID”) Board of Trustees, that on and after this 4 day of June, 2018, the HCTID shall do the following: 1. HCTID, in coordination with Hamilton County, will reach out to Greater Cincinnati economic development and tourism stakeholders as well as our federal delegation to urge Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson to delay removing Cincinnati's Amtrak station staff until at least one year after the conclusion of the Museum Center at Cincinnati Union Terminal renovations to more accurately measure the usage of the Cincinnati's Amtrak station; and 2. To formally engage the City of Cincinnati, its Mayor John Cranley and Cincinnati City Council, as well as the aforementioned economic development and tourism stakeholder for the purpose of promoting Amtrak passenger rail services and destinations from it: and 3. To become a partner agency on behalf of this initiative for the purposes of strengthening the case for daily and improved service on Amtrak's Cardinal route, in collaboration with USDOT, ODOT, Cincinnati, West Virginia’s Commissioner of the Division of Tourism and Tourism Commission (authorized under Article 2, Sec. 5B-2-9a of the West Virginia Code) and all other appropriate public and private stakeholders and for the planned expansion of the Chicago- Indianapolis Hoosier Corridor, sponsored by the Indiana Department of Transportation, via a new station at Oxford, OH and to expanded station track/platform facilities at Cincinnati Union Terminal (ref: City of Cincinnati Dept. of Transportation and Engineering's March 2011 planning documents). (0341470000002\4833-4855-40870 16118It is found and determined that all formal actions of this Board concerning and relating to the adoption of this resolution were adopted in an open meeting of this Board, and that all deliberations of this Board that resulted in such formal action, were in meetings open to the public, in compliance with the law, including ORC Section 121.22, Adopted at a regularly adjourned special meeting of the Board of ‘Trustees of the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District, Hamilton County, Ohio, this ath day of June 2018, Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District Presiding Trustee Attest: Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District Secretary-Treasurer Motion to Pass Resolution: Seconded by: (0341471000002\4853-4885-408701-6/1/18,