(The following story by James Heffernan appeared on the Northern Virginia Daily website on March 1, 2010.)
STRASBURG, Va. — For those who envision rail as a viable solution to getting tractor-trailers off Virginia’s interstates, the light at the end of the tunnel may indeed be an oncoming train — but it’s not who you might think.
CSX Corp. recently received $98 million in federal stimulus funds toward its goal of increasing the use of double-stack trains to move freight from mid-Atlantic ports to Midwestern markets.
The $842 million public-private partnership, known as National Gateway, involves upgrading existing track, modifying bridges and raising tunnel clearances along three major CSX routes — the I-95 corridor between North Carolina and Baltimore, I-70/I-76 between Washington and northwest Ohio via Pittsburgh, and the company’s Carolina Corridor between Wilmington, N.C., and Charlotte, N.C. — to accommodate the taller freight cars. One such train can carry the load of more than 280 trucks.
In Virginia, the project would take an estimated 1 million trucks off I-81 in its first 10 years — far less than Norfolk Southern’s Crescent Corridor plan, which boasts the ability to take 880,000 long-haul trucks off the busy commercial corridor annually.
But National Gateway officials are touting the project as a more comprehensive fix for freight transportation in the commonwealth. Double-stacked trains would also remove 770,000 trucks off I-64, 500,000 off I-95 and another 335,000 off I-66 over the same 10-year span, according to officials.
In addition, National Gateway promises to deliver about $600 million in public benefits to Virginia, including less road maintenance, fewer carbon emissions, enhanced use of the Virginia Port System and new job opportunities, both from the infrastructure modifications and the construction and staffing of intermodal transfer facilities, not unlike the Virginia Inland Port near Front Royal.
Officials say about 2,400 jobs would be created in the national capital region. There are plans to build a terminal near Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
“These investments are intended to help make the rail transportation system more nimble” and have the capacity to deal with increasing freight demand, said Louis Renjel, CSX’s vice president of strategic infrastructure initiatives.
The nation’s railroads and highways are already strained and will only become more congested as the population continues to grow, Renjel said.
“As freight demands become a reality, if rail doesn’t have the capacity to move that freight inland, it will only further congest the highways,” he said.
CSX also wants to take advantage of the scheduled widening of the Panama Canal by 2015, which will allow for more ships that would normally stop at West Coast ports to pass through to the East Coast.
Bob Sullivan, the company’s director of corporate communications, said the initiative is not designed to compete with trucks.
“In a lot of ways we’re working together,” he said, noting that intermodal facilities play to the strength of each mode. “Rail freight moves more efficiently over long distances while trucks give you the flexibility of delivering goods to specific markets.”
Construction on some projects has already begun. A public hearing on planned improvements to four CSX tunnels in Maryland is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.
The $98 million in federal funds CSX received will make up only about 30 percent of the total cost of the project. The sponsoring states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina — are expected to contribute $189 million, and CSX and its affiliates are contributing an additional $395 million.
Like his predecessor, Timothy M. Kaine, Gov. Bob McDonnell is on board with the project, as is state Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg.
“The Gateway program, along with other groups of rail initiatives, are deservedly gaining more attention,” said May, who serves as chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Those projects that accommodate container traffic moving in and out of the Port of Virginia and help relieve congestion in area tunnels and bridges are especially encouraging, he said.
With more vehicles on the highways and fewer public funds available for improvements, the mentality among state transportation officials has to change, May said.
“We’re having to see transportation in a different light,” adding, “We will have to move a lot of freight by rail.”
For more information, visit www.nationalgateway.org.