HAMILTON — Officials of three Butler County cities made their case Tuesday to the director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission on why a proposed commuter rail should run through Hamilton instead of West Chester Township.

        “We're in a central location,” Hamilton Councilman Richard Holzberger said. “If the rail route would be moved to West Chester, it would lose a lot of people in western Butler County and southeastern Indiana.”

        The rail system, which is at least 25 years in the future, would link Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland.

        The Ohio Rail Development Commission and the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments are studying possible routes.

        Hamilton officials don't want their city, which missed out on the interstate highway system, to be left off the commuter rail's route. They say being part of this rail system is vital to the city's long-term economic development.

        Hamilton City Council held a special meeting to lobby commission director James Seney and planner Don Damron.

        Those attending included members of Middletown and Fairfield city councils; Ohio Rep. Greg Jolivette, R-Hamilton, and James Duane, OKI executive director.

        After listening to members of Hamilton, Middletown and Fairfield city councils, Mr. Seney said the commission will continue to consider the proposed Hamilton rail route through the environmental phase of the route study.

        That phase won't be completed before next year, he said.

        He said Hamilton officials have made a good case for the Hamilton route serving a larger population center than the West Chester route.

        “We want to be in an area where there is population density,” Mr. Seney said. “That's a powerful issue.”

        One complication to running the commuter rail into Greater Cincinnati is the congestion of trains on the railroad tracks, he said.

        That issue, he said, will have to be worked out with the railroad companies.

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