Projects
With the defeat of the STAR Solutions consortium in December, 2007, RAIL Solution has been able to focus more on our main goal of balanced transportation with a meaningful role for rail.
Two of our major initiatives are detailed in this section. The I-81 Freight Rail Study (a.k.a. the HB-1581 study) is a multi-state feasibility analysis of the potential for railroads to handle through trucks in the I-81 Corridor between Harrisburg, PA and Knoxville, TN. The study resulted from a unanimous act of the 2006 Virginia General Assembly at the initiation of RAIL Solution. The Environmental Impact Statement on proposed massive highway widening of I-81 ruled out rail altogether, even though NEPA requires all alternatives to be weighed equally. HB-1581 was a way to bring attention to the rail alternative that should have been, but wasn't, included in the EIS. The study is being funded and conducted jointly by Norfolk Southern Corporation and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. A draft is expected in the summer of 2008.
Of a more national scope is our support of the "steel interstate" concept. This is a core national network of high-capacity rail lines that would constitute the backbone of a transportation system for both goods and people in the U.S. Today the rail industry in this country is where the highway system was in the 1950s before the half century build-out of the Eisenhower Interstate System. We need the same vision and commitment to a new transportation paradigm now for rail. The steel interstate would be grade-separated, multi-tracked, and electrified. By replacing expensive and scarce foreign oil with domestically generated electricity, our nation transportation system can be weened from near total dependence on oil, providing a sustainable method for preserving national mobility, saving energy, reducing pollution, improving safety, and eliminating the environmental destruction caused by highway widening.
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