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HOT TOPICS
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I-81 Freight Rail Study and Norfolk Southern Cresent Corridor compared and contrasted in new paper for CTB
11/18/07
Because both are rail intermodal efforts
affecting the I-81 Corridor, there has been public confusion over
what these two projects are and how they differ. In a new paper
prepared for the Commonwealth Transportation Board meeting in Roanoke
on November 7, RAIL Solution details the differences and highlights
some curious ways the new NS direction departs from the vision of
its own CEO, Wick Moorman (2nd item below).
Read more...
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Response to
"I-81 Crescent Corridor" Initiative
7/9/07
RAIL Solution has been asked our views on
Norfolk Southern's recently announced "I-81 Crescent Corridor"
initiative. To understand its significance, one has to separate what's
old from what's new.
Read more...
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Norfolk Southern's
I-81 Strategy
10/19/06
Norfolk Southern President, Chairman, and
CEO Charles "Wick" Moorman made a major address at Hotel
Roanoke, which he called a "coming out party" for the
railroad's I-81 strategy.
Read more...
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A Multi-State Plan Needs Multi-State Involvement
RAIL
Solution is reaching out to Tennesseans,
Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, and
West Virginians.
“Our neighbors need to know
that the H-1581 process offers opportunity
for significant transport- ation
improvements at less cost to taxpayers,
highway users and our environment
up and down the I-81 Corridor. These
citizens need to be pressing their
transportation planners to gain
access to the intermodal rail planning
process.”
Dave Foster
RAIL Solution Exec. Dir.
contact>
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RAIL Solution Representatives Visit Truck Ferry Operation at Freiburg, Germany
On September 13, 2007, Executive Director David Foster spent an afternoon at Freiburg watching truck ferry trains load and unload. Also
called rolling highway by some, this operational concept carries entire trucks. The trucks drive on and off the trains, and the drivers
are carried in a sleeping car. The Freiburg terminal is matched with one at Navarro, Italy. Trucks load and unload all day at each point
bound for the other.
This 8-page pdf shows in photos and brief text descriptions what Foster and
RAIL Solution member Jim Overholser found.
RAIL Solution advocates use of such an open intermodal approach in the I-81 Corridor because it can handle all trucks and because it can be
cost-effective in corridors shorter than traditional rail intermodal. An I-81 Freight Rail Study is ongoing to test this and other possibilities
in the I-81 Corridor between Knoxville, TN and Harrisburg, PA. The study is being funded and conducted jointly by Norfolk Southern Corporation
and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, and is a direct result of HB-1581 which RAIL Solution secured passage of in the
2006 Virginia General Assembly.
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RAIL Solution is monitoring implementation of a bill it sponsored in the Virginia legislature, H-1581:
an act to determine conditions necessary to divert truck freight from Interstate Route 81. The act, originally authored by
RAIL Solution, implements study of a Knoxville, Tn., to Harrisburg, Pa., corridor with fast, modern intermodal service operations
to move freight off of I-81 and onto trains. Excerpts from H-1581.
Norfolk Southern Corp. stepped forward last summer to share financing and responsibility for conducting
this rail feasibility study in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT). Norfolk
Southern’s contractor, Woodside Consulting Group, expects to complete analysis in the summer of 2007.
DRPT contracted with Cambridge Systematics (the contractor which prepared the
Freight Rail Bottom Line Report to review
the Norfolk Southern/Woodside data in order to assure incorporation of the public interest written into the act. That is, to determine
the extent to which rail may provide: less expensive, safer, and more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient alternative to the
construction of additional highway capacity. Cambridge Systematics plans to complete its analysis in the fall of 2007.
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On October 11, 2006, the Commonwealth Transportation Board
(CTB) voted to press forward with finalizing the Tier 1, Final Environmental
Impact Statement.
It did so in order to allow VDOT to proceed with making limited safety improvements needed along I-81, as documented
in the EIS. Before endorsing movement towards a final EIS though, the Board responded to intense lobbying by RAIL Solution members.
The CTB voted unanimously to remove “additional highway capacity” from their summary of the draft EIS highway improvement
conclusions and to insert “in refining the Tier 1 EIS and in developing the Tier II EIS, the findings of the ongoing,
independent Interstate 81 Freight Rail Study should be fully utilized.”
The CTB also gave VDOT a green light to continue consideration of tolling I-81 and stated that the I-81 Corridor
requires context sensitive design solutions.
We are also monitoring VDOT’s implementation of discreet safety improvements along I-81.
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NEXT MEETING:
June 7th at 10am
Salem, VA
OF INTEREST
CSX's Innovative I-95 Corridor Proposal
Rail: Perpetually Underfunded
2006 Recap
PROBLEMS
with the
Tier 1 EIS
-Overview of DEIS.
-RS Response
-VDOT I-81 Site
-Write to VDOT>
-EIS Process Overview
Concerns for:
-Local Leaders
-Business Leaders
-Historic Sites
-Railroad Fans
-Environmentals
MEDIA COVERAGE
-Editorials/News
-Letters to Editor
LEARN MORE
RAIL Solution's I-81 Transportation Issues & Priorities
Maximize Rail/ Minimize Road Expansion
RESOURCES
-VA Gen. Assembly
-Analysis & Reports
-EIS Process
-PPTA Process
-Media Contacts
-Links
-Contact Us
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