Many years ago, the decline of American train service led to the near abandonment of Union Terminal. Fortunately, it was saved from the wrecking ball, converted to a museum center and Amtrak triggered a mild revival of train service, albeit to a small waiting area in back of the terminal at 1301 Western Avenue. Today it features 3 times per week Amtrak service on this route:

Cardinal: Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Washington-Baltimore-Philadelphia-NYC

Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati and Cincinnati-Dayton-Columbus-Cleveland are U.S. High Speed Rail Corridors as designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation. For context about this important development, see this article about Interstate High Speed Rail.

SORTA Metro Buses: Nothing stands out as having tourist-quality, as regular buses run throughout greater Cincinnati and TANK buses run in northern Kentucky. The city did however, build a Central Riverfront Intermodal Center in the Banks area to better serve commuter rail transit, light rail transit, and bus rapid transit in the future.

Cincinnati Freeway Network situates at the intersection of Interstates 71, 74 and 75 and is within a day’s drive of nearly half of the nation’s population. With no rail transit system, this car-centric metro area relies on an extensive freeway network and several bridges between Downtown, the airport and circulating around the suburbs.  Commutes hours into downtown can be daunting. Freeway names are:

  71  Interstate from Columbus to Cincinnati to Louisville
  74  Interstate from Cincinnati to Indianapolis
  75  Interstate from Dayton to Cincinnati to Knoxville
126  State Route (northern) Cross-County Freeway
271  Interstate inner beltway around Louisville
275  Beltway surrounding Cincinnati; goes by the major airport
471  Connector freeway between Downtown and I-275 to the south
562  State Route Norwood Lateral Expressway connecting I-75 and I-71