The Board of the Cincinnati Southern Railway Trust approved $58 million in payments next year to the city of Cincinnati at its quarterly meeting Tuesday.
The trust comes from the $1.6 billion sale of the railway by the city to Norfolk Southern in March 2024. Roughly 51.5% of city voters approved that sale the previous November, but on the stipulation that the city could only spend revenues from investment of the railway money on existing infrastructure.
Representatives from UBS Financial Services, the management firm hired by the Board to invest the railway sale revenue, said the fund is now worth more than $1.8 billion. UBS says the fund is up 11.15% year-to-date.
"Since we began working together, the portfolio is up just shy of a quarter of a billion dollars," UBS Wealth Manager Eric Gioia told the Board. "We're very pleased with those results."
The fiscal year 2026 distribution is $2 million more than the previous year's figure of $56 million, and well more than the $24 million in annual lease payments the city got from Norfolk Southern prior to the sale of the railway.
The city renegotiated its lease with Norfolk Southern in 1987 in a way that eventually more than doubled its $11 million lease revenue up to roughly $24 million. But proponents of the railway sale have argued such an increase in the future would be unlikely.
"This level of distribution is obviously more than double what the lease payment was that we were operating under," CSRT Board Chair Paul Muething said. "Yes, we don't know what the lease payment would be if we were continuing to lease, but we do know this is a lot more money than the city was receiving just two years ago."
The $58 million will begin being distributed at the start of the next fiscal year in July 2026 and will be paid in quarterly installments. The CSRT Board releases information about the trust, its meetings and other records via its website.
What is the city planning for the funds?
Cincinnati Assistant City Manager Billy Weber told the CSRT Board that the city has a six-year capital improvement plan moving forward, during which it will average more than $85 million in infrastructure spending yearly. That includes CSRT revenue as well as other funds.
The city has a new dashboard showing how it is spending the railway money. This summer, Cincinnati City Council approved the appropriation of its first $56 million payment from the railway investment revenue, which it began receiving this July.
The dashboard shows projects by neighborhood — the city says it is spending more than half the revenues in neighborhoods where the median income is below $50,000 a year.
The site also shows projects by category. Broadly, the city is spending:
- $34.5 million for streets and bridges
- $7.8 million for recreation
- $6.4 million for public services
- $7.1 million for parks
City officials highlighted projects the city is funding with the railway money during the CSRT Board meeting, including rehabilitation of its aging fleet facility built in the 1930s, future renovations of Krohn Conservatory, street paving and safety improvements, as well as a number of other projects.
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