Kasich says no passenger rail for Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WDTN) - In his first news conference as governor elect, John Kasich de-railed plans for high speed trains connecting Dayton to the rest of the state.

In a press conference with reporters from around the state, Kasich outlined his priorities for taking Ohio into the future.

"My message today is to get jobs going in this state," said Kasich.

Political analysts said the economy is what helped Kasich win the election, now he wants the economy to win for Ohio.

"We have to become competitive. We've got to show the people of this state that we can manage the budget and we are going to be very aggressively talking to businesses both in this state, and outside of this state," said Kasich.

Kasich also answered questions about education, saying he needed to have a serious conversation with educators about unfunded mandates. Kasich is strongly against Governor Ted Strickland's evidence based model of education, saying there are no funds to enforce it.

"We are going to get dollars into the classroom, and push shared services, and make sure there's no excuse for multiple school districts not being able to share administrators. There's too many things going on out there that are not business like," said Kasich.

Kasich also had a direct message for the teacher's union, who blasted him during the campaign for his stance on the merit pay and holding teachers accountable.

"I am waiting for the teachers union to take out full page ads in all of the newspapers apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign," said Kasich.

An issue important to many in the Miami Valley was the future of the 3-C rail, that would bring passenger rail travel into the region.

Kasich minched no words about the future of passenger rail service in Dayton and the rest of the state.

"That train is dead. I said it during the campaign. It is dead. Passenger rail is not in Ohio's future."

Kasich went on to say that he did support expanding the rails to help with the transportation of goods, just not for passengers.

2 News asked Dayton officials about Kasich's remarks.

City economic development director John Gower said it was too early to comment.