Cincinnati Southern Railway Trust Distributions – Timeline
Railway_Trust_Detailed_Chronology_Sept_9_2026_
CO11494-060826 Railway investments
Additional Supporting Documents for the Timeline
2026-Feb-CSRT-Minutes-Approved
August 28 ltr to Clark, Schaefer, and Hackett re Investment of Railway funds
City Finance Letter to CSRT Board 1.23.26
Statement of balances for Fund 712
On December 17, 2025, I recommended that the Cincinnati Southern Railway Board of Trustees, consider implementing a “draw-down” process for distributing the city’s annual allocation of Trust investment proceeds.
I made this recommendation based on the media reports indicating that the city was not deploying railway funds in a timely way. As a result, the city has been depositing its unspent railway funds into its own investment account.
We have subsequently discovered that the interest earnings on those invested railway funds is going into the city’s general fund. The city is unable to tell us how much interest income is being generated by those funds.
In other words, those investment earnings have lost their identity as Railway money and thus loses the restricted use of the railway for “existing infrastructure.”
The city’s response to a record request I submitted in June 2026 was received on August 27, 2026, which confirms this observation.
This issue has been evolving since I first alerted the CSRT Board in February 2025 (18 months ago) that the city was going to be unable to spend the millions of dollars from Railway Trust that are being distributed to the city every quarter.
In preparation for the September 15, 2026, meeting of the Board, I have prepared a timeline that traces how the issue has evolved and provides my assessment of where things stand with the “draw down” recommendation.
I sent the timeline to the Board yesterday and will be attending the Board meeting next week to follow up.
The time line and response to my records request are posted above as well as supporting documents for the timeline.
