The Ohio Hub was a high-speed railway project proposed in the 2000s by the Ohio Department of Transportation aimed at revitalizing passenger rail service in Ohio and surrounding states. The plan was awarded funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, but Governor John Kasich refused to use the funds for the project and the funds were reclaimed by the federal government. Passage of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act raised the possibility of new funding for a similar project.

Passenger service between Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland ended on May 1, 1971, when the Ohio State Limited was discontinued upon the assumption of Penn Central Transportation's passenger service by Amtrak.

Upon completion, the transit system would have been composed of 860 mi (1,380 km) of track serving 32 stations. It would connect four states along with southern Ontario, consisting of 11 major metropolitan areas and 22 million people. The system's goal was to "expand the capacity of the transportation system by improving the railroads for both freight and passenger trains."

As of the mid-2000s, the initial startup cost was projected to be in the $500 million range. This did not include the cost of trains or the preparations needed for high-speed service. Two high-speed train systems were being explored. The first, a 79-mile-per-hour (127 km/h) system, was expected to cost $2.7 billion, or $3.5 million per mile. The second option, a 110-mile-per-hour (180 km/h) higher-speed system was estimated to cost $3.32 billion, or $4.5 million per mile.

The project's hub was proposed to be based at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (the state's largest and busiest airport) with a second Cleveland location near downtown Cleveland, and to provide service to adjacent cities in both the state of Ohio and the Ohio Region. Three proposals were made for service – a single line system from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and two networked systems with multiple corridors providing service from Cleveland to various cities around the Ohio Region. Each corridor would branch out from Cleveland, and serve from four to nine stations, as well as connections to other regional rail services. Additional lines were proposed to connect the planned corridors with each other throughout the state, as well as to add more stations between major cities.

The full Ohio & Lake Erie Regional Rail proposal would provide service to four states plus Canada through four corridors originating in Cleveland. An additional network was proposed with three additional lines (seven lines total), however was still under development. The proposal featured the following four corridors:

On January 28, 2010, the White House announced that Ohio would receive $400 million of its request through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This allowed for passenger rail service to return specifically on the 3C corridor. The 3C Corridor could provide service from Cleveland to Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati, a distance of 255 miles (410 km). The service was predicted to carry around 478,000 people a year, using a subsidy of $17 million from the state government.

The proposed corridor, however, attracted opposition from Republican members of the state board in charge of the project, as the proposed six-hour travel time and 39 mph (63 km/h) average speed led the project to be dubbed "snail rail". Then-governor and rail proponent Ted Strickland said in April 2010 that the average speed could be increased to 46 mph (74 km/h), but Republicans were still not sold on it.