What Was New?
The NS Crescent Corridor - What it Does for Virginia and Where it Falls Short
10/23/09
Norfolk Southern's multi-state Crescent Corridor intermodal initiative includes Virginia. NS is asking states, including Virginia, and the federal government to contribute to the project's cost. In return, NS is promising to remove hundreds of thousands of trucks annually from the highways in participating states. The Crescent Corridor program is good, as far as it goes, and will make some much-needed railroad infrastructure improvements. But, even if truck diversion occurs as projected, the public may not secure benefits worth the investment being sought by NS. Senator Warner's office asked RAIL Solution to comment on the benefit vs. cost question, and this paper was prepared pursuant to that request. In it we show why our Steel Interstate pilot project for the I-81 Corridor would be a more worthwhile public/private partnership, and make a meaningful impact on I-81 truck volumes.
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RAIL Solution Featured Prominently in TRAINS!
10/03/09
In a cover article in the November, 2009 issue of TRAINS Magazine on the future of railroad electrification, RAIL Solution's Craig Thorpe lithograph of an electrified Steel Interstate caliber railroad in Virginia is featured on pp. 24 - 25. The painting was commissioned for RAIL Solution by Hal Cooper of Kirkland, Washington. The TRAINS article also mentions Phillip Longman's Washington Monthly article and research by Alan Drake, both of whom RAIL Solution has relied on in promulgating its vision for a National Steel Interstate System. See the TRAINS article here.
Action Needed to Support the I-81 Steel Interstate Pilot Project
6/19/09
We are mobilizing a broad campaign to urge Governor Tim Kaine to overrule his Secretary of Transportation. Secretary Pierce Homer is thwarting the will of the people of western and southwest Virginia and east Tennessee, where over 46 local governments and regional planning body resolutions calling for a Federal "Steel Interstate" rail pilot project along the I-81 corridor have been presented to members of Congress.
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Campaign for Steel Interstate Pilot Project Begun in I-81 Corridor
1/18/09
RAIL Solution has begun work to secure grassroots support for a steel interstate demonstration in the I-81 Corridor between Memphis and Harrisburg. We are working to secure resolutions from local governments and MPOs, and endorsements from elected officials. The economic stimulus bill and the upcoming transportation act reauthorization represent an unparalleled opportunity to launch the steel interstate concept.
Rationale and Sample Resolutions and Endorsements
View Current Resolutions & Endorsements
The heavy consolidated truck flow density shown here between Memphis, TN and Harrisburg, PA make this portion of the I-81 Corridor an ideal candidate for a pilot demonstration project for the National Steel Interstate System.
Click here for FHWA maps showing the heavy consolidated truck flow
New America Foundation Steel Interstate Article
1/15/09
Phil Longman, Senior Fellow and Research Director at New America Foundation has penned an article solidly supporting what he terms the "steel wheel interstate." In it Longman uses Virginia's I-81 Corridor as his poster child. The article appears in the January 15, 2009 issue of Washington Monthly magazine. This is the first time since RAIL Solution began promoting the steel interstate concept in 2003 that an article in favor has appeared in a respected mainstream media outlet. To read the full story, click here.
New Steel Interstate Paper
1/5/09
Hoping to influence the economic stimulus debate and the transportation act reauthorization later this year, RAIL Solution has issued a new paper examining the many advantages of the steel interstate and its relation to so many hot-button issues of the day, such as energy independence, climate change, economic competitiveness, national defense, pollution and greenhouse gases, energy conservation, health and safety, infrastructure investment, and peak oil.
Craig Thorpe Lithograph
11/15/08
At RAIL Solution's Annual Meeting today in Roanoke, VA, Hal Cooper of Cooper Consulting Company, Kirkland, WA, presented to RAIL Solution an original lithograph by Craig Thorpe depicting a steel interstate rail corridor in western Virginia.
Tenn-DOT I-81 / I-40 Comments
11/03/08
RAIL Solution has submitted its official response to Tennessee Department of Transportation on the Task 4 Technical Memorandum entitled, “Project Priorities ? A Corriddor Plan”. The initial 30-day comment period expired on November 3, but has been extended an additional month, so other interested groups and individuals are encouraged to reply.
The acknowledged purpose of this planning effort has been to identify capacity deficiencies in the I-40/I-81 Corridor and to “develop corridor-level, multi-modal solutions to address those deficiencies.” RAIL Solution is both amazed and chagrined that the recommendations finally issuing from this long-term planning process embrace $4.24 billion of highway improvements and virtually nothing for rail. This is hardly a multi-modal approach!
Click here for the TN GHG emission slides
RAIL Solution Comments on Draft Statewide Rail Plan
08/25/08
Today RAIL Solution forwarded to Virginia's Department of Rail and Public Transportation its official comments on the DSRP dated July 14, 2008.
Comments focused on a lack of a bold, long-term vision in the DSRP, its dominance by the Class I railroads in the state, a lack of opportunity for the public to influence the future agenda for rail projects, and criticism of the DSRP's projection of current anemic rail funding levels continuing out through year 2035.
In a cover letter to DRPT's Director, Matthew Tucker, Executive Director David Foster said, "We commend DRPT for its professional production of the DSRP and the useful background information it contains, describing the current rail situation in Virginia. Also, we are pleased that DRPT elected to hold hearings at various locations around the state to encourage public participation and input."
Nevertheless the entire tone of the DSRP seems discouragingly timid, colored by the current low level of rail funding, and generally lacking in long-term vision and appreciation for the potential of rail to preserve vital mobility of goods and people in an era of diminishing oil.
To address such shortcomings, RAIL Solution offers the following as constructive suggestions for improving the Statewide Rail Plan as DRPT moves towards a final version."
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Star Solutions Officialy Folds
01/17/08
"Great news!" is how Rees Shearer, Chair of RAIL Solution, responded to the announcement Wednesday by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) that Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) had "declined further participation" by STAR Solutions in I-81 construction work, including planned truck climbing lanes in Rockbridge and Montgomery Counties.
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I-81 Freight Rail Study and Norfolk Southern Cresent Corridor Compared and Contrasted 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).
RAIL Solution Presents Vision for Steel Interstate at Virginia Energy and Sustainability Converence
10/17/07
RAIL Solution was invited to make a presentation at COVES in Lexington on how moving freight by rail can save energy. Executive Director David Foster used the opportunity to brief attendees in the transportation break-out on the merits of the Steel Interstate concept.
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New All-Purpose RAIL Solution Brochure Issued
09/04/07
At conferences, workshops, fairs, and other public events we often have an opportunity to spread the word on who RAIL Solution is, what we do, and welcome new participants. A new brochure has been printed for this purpose, and is available as a pdf
Download here....
Response to "I-81 Crescent Corridor" Initiative
07/09/07
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.
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.
Rail - Perpetually Underfunded
The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System of the past 50 years is now nearly complete. Over the same 50 year period U.S. railroad infrastructure has been in steady decline. Our economy is good and the demands for freight shipping are steadily increasing, beyond what the highways can handle. Federal and state transportation dollars are overwhelmingly poured into roads. Unfortunately, the "growth of (rail) traffic is more rapid than the rail industry’s capability to expand using internally generated funds..."
View pdf of Dave Foster's full statement to the Surface Transportation Board Public Hearing, "Rail Capacity and Infrastructure Requirements" - delivered on April 11, 2007.
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.
RAIL Solution is Monitoring Implementation of a H-1581
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.
Commonwealth Transportation Board Votes to Finalize Teir 1 EIS
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.