Passenger trains might not start for a couple of years, but yesterday state officials hailed the launch of an application to get federal stimulus money for a rail route across Ohio.

Last week, officials from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Rail Development Commission submitted an application for part of $8 billion in federal stimulus money intended for passenger rail in underserved corridors of the United States.

Ohio officials say the diagonal from Cleveland to Cincinnati, with stops in Columbus and Dayton, is one of the most populous corridors in the country without passenger rail service. Although Cleveland and Cincinnati are stops along east-west routes run by Amtrak, Columbus hasn't had passenger service since the early 1970s.

An Amtrak study estimated that 478,000 people would use a medium-speed train on the trans-Ohio route each year.

The Obama administration is expected to decide which routes qualify for stimulus money early next year.

jnash@dispatch.com