(The following story by Del Malkie appeared on the Mineral Daily News-Tribune website on November 24.)
KEYSTER, W.Va. — A major effort in last week’s closing Congressional session by West Virginia’s Senator Robert C. Byrd has salvaged funding for the nation’s hard-pressed Amtrak railroad system, while a second Byrd proposal passed Saturday ensures continued construction of the state’s Corridor H highway system.
Ranking Democrat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, Byrd fended off efforts by some House members to cut Amtrak funding almost in half from last year. The final measure will award more than $1.2 billion to the rail system this year, enough to keep the nation’s passenger railroad from filing for bankruptcy and ceasing its operations as feared.
A further provision permits Amtrak to establish a five-year payment schedule on a $4.5 billion capital plan supported by federal, state and other sources. In the first year of that plan, Byrd reports, Amtrak rebuilt or overhauled 124 locomotives and passenger cars, installed nearly 200,000 ties, converted or upgraded 36 bridges, replaced 33 miles of signal cable and renewed power lines along 37 miles of line.
“Amtrak is working hard to improve its service and modernize its trains,” reported the senator. “This funding will help Amtrak to move ahead, yet is not enough to pay for the overhaul that is so needed. But it will allow the railroad to take the next steps in bringing its service into the 21st Century.”
In West Virginia, Amtrak now stops in a number of communities, including White Sulphur Springs, Montgomery, Charleston, Huntington and Martinsburg.
“Corridor H is the largest unfinished corridor highway in West Virginia,” Byrd said. “First promised by the federal government 39 years ago as part of the Appalachian Development Highway System, Corridor H is inching closer to completion. This year’s $15 million funding will help speed the final construction and paving.”
The overall Appalachian highway system still has only about 72 percent of its projected mileage opened to traffic so far. It will stretch from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley northward, passing through Hardy County in this Eastern Panhandle.
“The rationale behind the completion of the Corridor H Highway System is no less sound today than it was when it was first created,” says Byrd. “Unfortunately, there are still children who lack decent transportation routes to schools and there are still pregnant mothers, elderly citizens and others who lack timely road access to area hospitals. There are thousands upon thousands of people who cannot obtain sustainable well-paying jobs because of poor road access to major employment centers. That is why it is so important that we finish Corridor H.”
The veteran senator maintained that without this highway system “my region of the country would have been left solely with a transportation infrastructure of dangerous, narrow, winding roads which follow the path of river valleys and streambeds between mountains. These roads are still, more often than not, two-lane roads that are squeezed into very limited rights-of-way. They are often built to inadequate design standards.”
Byrd reported the Federal Highway Administration has found that upgrading two-lane roads to four-lane highways decreased fatal car accidents by 71 percent, this in the face of statistics that show some 40,000 motorists die and three million are injured each year on the nation’s roads.
“It’s a simple truth,” says Senator Byrd. “Investing in roads and building better highways saves lives. And, these dollars also represent a significant boost for West Virginia’s economy. For every $10 million invested in highway and road building, not only is the safety of travelers improved, but also 420 people get jobs in construction and related fields.”