(The following story by Chip Jones appeared on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on January 14.)
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia and North Carolina set the stage yesterday for receiving federal funds for improving passenger railroads in both states.
Unfortunately, no one knows when — or if — such money might roll down the track from Washington.
State Sen. John Watkins, R-Chesterfield, submitted a bill to the General Assembly establishing the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Compact. Similar legislation is expected in North Carolina.
Watkins’ bill and a variety of other rail-related topics were discussed yesterday by the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Commission. The group — made up of legislators from both states — met at the reopened Main Street Station in downtown Richmond.
The idea for a rail compact grew out of a trip to Congress in the summer of 2002 by Watkins and a counterpart from North Carolina.
During that trip, Watkins said, he learned that the Constitution “only recognizes compacts as a legal means to appropriate funds” for such joint transportation projects.
Any funds will be used to foster faster passenger rail service from Washington to Charlotte, N.C. But funding in Congress remains uncertain in this election year — “the presidential silly season,” one Washington observer said.
Virginia and North Carolina are members of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition, which has been lobbying for bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate to include rail-improvement money in a pending transportation bill.
The Senate is trying to bridge a $130 billion gap between a Bush administration proposal and another bill in the House, said David Ewing, the coalition lobbyist. He called on the state legislators to lobby their U.S. senators.
In Virginia, meanwhile, efforts are under way to use allocated state funds to make improvements between Main Street Station to the busier Amtrak station on Staples Mill Road in Henrico County.
Karen Rae, executive director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, said more than $15 million is earmarked to make the Main Street-Staples Mill improvements.
According to Amtrak, it takes on average 27 minutes to traverse the eight miles of track between the two stations.
Using the $15 million to improve signals and intersections should cut at least five minutes off the trip, Rae said.
Another major improvement is planned near Quantico, which she called the largest “choke point” for passenger trains that use the CSX Corp. track between Richmond and Washington.
Currently, only one set of tracks crosses Quantico Creek.
The state will accept bids next month to build another 1,800-foot bridge across the creek, providing space for up to two new sets of tracks for passenger and freight rail.
The project, with an estimated cost of $21 million, is expected to be done by December 2006.