Second city rail route in state’s plan

Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: July 16, 2008

The proposed second daily Amtrak train from Lynchburg to Washington is included in the draft of a statewide rail plan issued Tuesday by the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

A nearly $2 million-per-year state subsidy, the amount necessary to operate the train, is not included.

The draft plan identifies $4.9 billion in potential rail investments by the state, for both freight and passenger trains operating throughout Virginia.

It cites $1.3 billion in potential revenues that could be generated with Virginia’s existing taxes by 2035.

The state’s gain from spending tax dollars on rails would be a reduced number of trucks and cars using its highways, according to the draft plan.

The plan gives considerable attention to improving passenger train service from Newport News through Richmond to Washington. It also considers high-speed rail service along the Interstate 95 corridor into North Carolina.

Trains are “a significant part of our present and a critical part of our future for effective passenger and freight rail movements, particularly as energy costs and fuel prices continue to rise,” the plan said.

In addition to state-generated money, two Amtrak funding measures that are working their way through Congress offer potential benefits for Virginia, the draft said.

A Senate version of the Amtrak reauthorization bill would share $715 million among the states for rail projects through 2013. A House of Representatives version of the bill could provide $2.8 billion nationwide.

Both bills cleared their respective houses by veto-proof margins. The different amounts await settlement by a conference committee.

If either bill passes in its current form, “capital grants to states would likely become available beginning in 2010 or 2011,” the plan says.

For the U.S. 29 corridor from Lynchburg to Washington, the plan said that Phase 1 of a passenger rail service upgrade, which would add a second daily Amtrak train on the route, could be accomplished by 2010 if funding were available.

Norfolk Southern Corp., which owns the tracks in the corridor, has its own plan for upgrading the rails along what Amtrak calls its Crescent route.

Virginia said its standards allow the state to fund up to 70 percent of the cost of a rail-line upgrade, with the rest coming from the railroad or other non-government sources.