Printing What Was New?

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."

Read More...

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.

Read More...

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 - 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.