The 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' and our pledge to go beyond the headlines | From the editor

It’s usually a slow news week heading into Thanksgiving.

So it was a bit of a surprise when Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval convened a news conference on Monday to announce plans for the city to sell the railroad it owns to Norfolk Southern Railway for $1.6 billion dollars.

Wait, what? We own a railroad? More on that later.

The money raised by the sale of the 337-mile railway would go into a trust fund, the interest from which would be tapped for infrastructure projects. Currently, the city leases the railroad, using that revenue for the same purpose.

If you have alerts set up for multiple news outlets like I do (occupational hazard), your phone started blowing up Monday afternoon. All the headlines were essentially the same: "City announces plans to sell railroad for $1.6 billion."

But our headline, linking to a story written by city hall reporter Sherry Coolidge, took a different tack: "Secret plan to sell Cincinnati's railroad faces early questions."

I’m sure proponents of the sale weren’t thrilled with that headline. "Major announcement" news conferences are designed to make a big splash, dominate the day’s news cycle and get a carefully scripted message to the people before reporters have time to ask a lot of questions. We too often walk right into the trap.

But Sherry’s story was in the works for weeks, the result of dogged beat reporting and good source development. It’s the latest example of how The Enquirer lives up to its promise to go behind the headlines, providing context, perspective and nuance you can’t find anywhere else. What did Sherry report that others didn’t?

The government-appointed board that oversees the railroad had been meeting secretly on the plan since July 2021. The board was able to do so by going to executive session, citing a provision in Ohio's open meetings law that allows government bodies to meet out of the public eye when discussing real estate and other business deals that require privacy to maintain a competitive advantage.

The Enquirer also was the first to report that not everyone shares the opinion that this is a no-brainer for the city.

State Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, questioned whether the current lease arrangement isn’t better for the city in the long run. (The state legislature would have to approve the plan for it to move forward.)

"Inflation, investments that didn’t do as well as expected and spending will deplete this fund at some point," Blessing said. "Having a reliable lease payment is far better for Cincinnati."

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But this column isn’t about the railroad. It’s about our commitment to bring you more than the headlines for the news that matters most. Here are some other recent examples:

∎ Enquirer education reporter Madeline Mitchell obtained records that showed how seriously members of the Forest Hills School board and the superintendent were considering plans to sell Anderson High School and consolidate facilities. After significant blowback from the community, the superintendent said selling the high school is off the table.

∎ The story of a 10-year-old rape victim from Columbus who traveled to Indiana for an abortion made national headlines. How common is juvenile rape in Ohio? In an exclusive report, The Enquirer and the Columbus Dispatch dug deep into crime and state agency records and learned the case of the 10-year-old was not an aberration. Among our findings: On an average day, 10 reports of child sexual abuse are substantiated by Ohio children's services investigators or they find strong evidence to indicate abuse occurred.

∎ In the case of P.G. Sittenfeld, U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole will ultimately decide the fate of the former Cincinnati city councilman, who was convicted of bribery and attempted extortion. But who is judge Cole? To find out, The Enquirer interviewed people who know him, examined his rulings and the questionnaire he filled out after being nominated and reviewed his confirmation hearing.

In-depth reporting takes time, expertise and often a little legal pressure to get public records released. Your investment in local journalism as a subscriber makes this work possible. We can’t get beyond the headlines without your support.

Now about that railroad.

Cincinnati is the only city in the nation that owns a railroad. Completed in 1880, the Cincinnati Southern Railway connects Cincinnati to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

But did you know the railroad inspired the 1941 Glenn Miller tune "Chattanooga Choo Choo"? I learned that from The Enquirer’s local history writer Jeff Suess in a story you also can find on Cincinnati.com.

Thank you for your readership, and best wishes to you and yours as we head into the holidays.

Enquirer Executive Editor Beryl Love writes a biweekly column that takes you behind the scenes at The Enquirer. Occasionally, he shares his thoughts on local issues, particularly as they pertain to a free press and government transparency. Email him at blove@enquirer.com. He can’t respond personally to every email, but he reads them all. 

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Southern Railway sale column Enquirer editor Beryl Love