(The following story by Hawes Spencer appeared on The Hook website on March 29, 2009.)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Seizing a moment in history under a president who favors funding railroads to stimulate the economy and move both freight and passengers, Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA, 9th) appears poised to secure cash for once-just-a-dream “Steel Interstate,” something supporters believe would pull trucks off Interstate 81 and create vast transportation efficiencies.
“Folks, if it hasn’t sunk in yet, I am here to tell you that the Steel Interstate System is how we’re going to handle essential shipments and personal intercity travel in a post oil world,” Michael Testerman tells members of the Virginia Association of Rail Passengers in an email. Testerman is president of that group and just returned from a three-day Capitol Hill visit to lobby for a Steel Interstate.
The Steel Interstate that Testerman has in mind is an upgrade of the existing Norfolk Southern rail corridor between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that would allow long-haul truckers to park their rigs aboard large-scale, fast-moving ferry trains to avoid driving along hilly and already-clogged Interstate 81.
Testerman says Boucher has offered to introduce language in the reauthorization bill for the existing six-year transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, to designate this Shenandoah Valley corridor as a pilot segment and get funding to plan the first phase of what Testerman calls a National Steel Interstate System.
After last year’s fuel price shocks, railroads increased the tenor of their efficiency merits, with CSX Corporation running television ads claiming the company can move a ton of freight 423 miles on a single gallon of fuel.
Already, President Obama has made his $8 billion commitment to high-speed rail the centerpiece of his controversial economic recovery plan. Testerman says a Steel Interstate has already garnered resolutions from 21 supportive Tennessee and Virginia jurisdictions and that such system will “revolutionize” American transportation.