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Pictured are members of the Lakeshore Rail Summit panel. Left to right: Brian Pitzer, All Aboard Erie, Ed D’Amato, Lakeshore Rail Alliance; Grace Gallucci, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Coordinating Agency; Derrick James, Amtrak director of government affairs; Mark Restifo, Wabtec procurement director; and Bill Hutchison, Lakeshore Rail Alliance.

The Connect Dunkirk Committee recently attended the Lakeshore Rail Summit at the HO Hirt Auditorium in Erie, PA, a forum on the importance of passenger rail in the region. The speaker most relevant to the committee’s efforts to promote a passenger stop at Dunkirk was Derrick James, Amtrak’s director of government affairs.

As Amtrak develops expansion plans, it faces the challenge of convincing policymakers that rail should be part of the solution to transportation challenges, carbon reduction goals and economic development.

After his speech, Dunkirk City Development Director Vince DeJoy and Roy Davis of the Connect Dunkirk Committee spoke with him and provided him with a range of information about the Dunkirk area.

Additionally, a newly formed coalition, the Lakeshore Rail Alliance, is seen as a first step toward improving the existing Lake Shore Limited, as a way to begin improving the availability of passenger rail that would connect the Northeast and Great Lakes regions. The first set of goals they will work on include adding a day train between New York and Cleveland and new stations in Dunkirk, Ashtabula and Mentor, Ohio. This coalition has a regional approach that will encompass and focus its efforts on improving connections for the entire Great Lakes region.

The Connect Dunkirk committee was encouraged by the information presented at the forum and that there was support for adding a train station to Dunkirk. The Great Lakes region is on the radar for passenger rail improvements, and the future is bright.

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