(The following article by Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on November 14.)
RICHMOND, Va. — The dream of a new rail yard tied in with the Port of Richmond will be deferred for at least a year.
But the port’s director said last week that the project remains on the drawing board even though state funding was put off for at least a year.
To make it happen, the port and its allies around Virginia — including the TransDominion Express passenger rail group — will need to get a firm commitment for local funding. The city of Richmond, which owns the 120-acre port on the James River, is the logical place to start.
“Absolutely, we really think it’s a good project,” said Martin J. Moynihan, the port’s executive director.
He was responding to a recent decision by the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation to move the port’s project to a second tier of rail improvement next year.
Gov. Mark R. Warner’s Rail Advisory Board is sorting out 25 proposals for divvying up a relatively small pot of state money $23 million, the first-ever dedicated funding for rail improvements in Virginia.
The board is expected to release its priority list Nov. 30. The Commonwealth Transportation Board must then give the green light.
Moynihan’s effort to extend the port’s rail network stems from a need to generate more revenue.
“We’ve been running flat for the past years,” with “no new business,” he said.
The port’s last growth spurt occurred in the late 1990s when it handled steel imports and newsprint. That business is gone, and Moynihan said, “We have not really physically recovered from that slowdown.”
The port, which recently celebrated its 65th anniversary, has one ship a week from Independent Container Line, and that’s pretty much it.
Moynihan hopes the proposed expansion would draw in more freight by rail, as well as set the stage for new passenger rail service.
He wants to build a “loop track” to serve Amtrak, which could use it to bring trains across the James River after stopping at Main Street Station.
This would allow the city to build a train storage facility to serve the historic depot, which reopened in 2003 after a $51.6 million facelift. Since then, the station in Shockoe Bottom has seen limited service between Richmond and Newport News.
Karen Rae, whose staff has prioritized the proposals for the $23 million, said the top projects already have dedicated funding sources and most of their engineering work is done.
The port project will be reconsidered next year, along with a number of other rail improvements — including CSX’s Fulton Yard in east Richmond and Collier Yard in Petersburg.
The Fulton project would build a “wye track” — that is, one built like the letter Y and used to reverse the direction of trains or cars.
The Fulton effort would “permit the turning of freight locomotives in the City of Richmond at Fulton Yard” rather than using CSX’s overcrowded Acca Yard.
Similarly, a new track at the Collier Yard “would eliminate the need to run locomotives to Acca Yard,” about 30 miles away, for turning.
The Petersburg project would increase CSX’s rail capacity and reduce congestion on the railroad’s main line between Richmond and Petersburg, according to the proposal.
Back at the port, Moynihan has a powerful ally in the much-vaunted TransDominion Express, the public/private group trying to bring back passenger rail service from Bristol to Roanoke to Lynchburg and Richmond.
TDX, as its known, wants to connect with Amtrak’s regional service to Alexandria and Washington.
Moynihan, a retired Coast Guard captain, has been the port’s chief since 1990. “I retired two years ago,” he said, “but they asked me to stay. I said I’d stay for a couple of projects.”