RAIL Solution

What's New?

Work Continues on a National Steel Insterstate Coalition
05/01/10
At the top of RAIL Solution's goal for 2010 is formation of a Steel Interstate Coalition. We have revised and updated our briefing paper. We have produced two new fliers for use at conferences, fairs, and conventions. Copies of these three items can be downloaded by clicking here:
Steel Interstate White Paper
National and I-81 Corridor Vision Flier
90-sec Overview Flier
Meanwhile work continues on the development of a Steel Interstate website. The finished product will not be available until late June, but you are invited to view a place-holder site while work is in progress: www.steelinterstate.org

RAIL Solution Comments to FRA on National Rail Plan
04/15/10
The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a draft National Rail Plan and has opened a docket for public comment: FRA-2010-0020-0001. The Plan and the Federal Register notice containing full instructions for response are available through the FRA website. RAIL Solution has submitted our Steel Insterstate paper as well as responses to the ten specific questions / issues posed by the FRA.

RAIL Solution participates in Chicago Transportation Forum
04/10/10
RAIL Solution menbers participated in the April 10 Chicago forum -- Transportation, Community and Climate Change: Seizing the Opportunities, presenting our vision for the Steel Interstate in the future of transportation in America.

RAIL Solution and other groups criticize I-81 Freight Rail Study
02/15/10
On January 14, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation issued the long-awaited Draft Final Report of the I-81 Freight Rail Study. It suffers from nearly all the shortcomings detailed in the Nov. 18 posting below, and completely ignores the comprehensive scope of work detailed in HB-1581. Below you can find comments on the Freight Rail Study by RAIL Solution and other interested parties.
RAIL Solution
Rockbridge Area Conservation Council
Shenandoah Valley Network
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation
Sierra Club of Virginia
Coalition for Smarter Growth
Virginia Organizing Project

RAIL Solution Comments on Draft Final Report of I-81 Truck to Rail Freight Diversion Study
11/18/09
In this paper we critique the October 27, 2009 Draft Final Report entitled Feasibility Plan for Maximum Truck to Rail Diversion in Virginia's I-81 Corridor. Instead of adhering to the scope of work set out in the original enabling legislation in 2006 (HB-1581), the Study has wandered off course to become little more than a validation of Norfolk Southern's Crescent Corridor proposal.

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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. Senator Warner's office asked RAIL Solution to comment on the benefit vs. cost of the project, 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.

What's New, Continued...

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Campaign for Action

BULLETIN: We are mobilizing a broad campaign (see "ACTION" immediately below) 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 government 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.

In April, RAIL Solution worked with Congressman Rick Boucher (VA-9) to draft a Federal Steel Interstate study project for the I-81 corridor at Congressman Boucher's initiative. Unfortunately, last month the Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer refused to allow VDOT to accept a Federal grant for the study even if Congress were to authorize one. Because VDOT refuses to support the project, Representatives Bob Goodlatte (VA-6) and Frank Wolf (VA-10) are now also withholding their own support. (New earmark transparency specifications for the omnibus Federal transportation reauthorization require support from state departments of transportation for rail transportation projects.)

ACTION NEEDED: Please contact Governor Kaine by telephone (804) 786-2211 or email him from his website: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm.

Ask Governor Kaine to give the I-81 Corridor due opportunity:

· Honor his commitment to RAIL Solution, made in the Governor's office with RAIL Solution leaders August 30, 2006 and to overrule his Secretary of Transportation, who is openly defying the Governor's policy decision to maximize the potential for rail in the I-81 Corridor.

· Order Secretary Homer to notify Representatives Boucher, Goodlatte, and Wolf and Senators Webb and Warner, that VDOT will gladly accept responsibility for coordinating a Federal grant to study the Steel Interstate in the I-81 Corridor as a pilot project for the National Steel Interstate System of railroads to speedily move passengers and freight using green energy instead of precious oil.

· Respect the good sense of 46 local governments and regional planning bodies which have voted support for this Congressional initiative since late January 2009. Rail is a cleaner, greener, faster, cheaper solution to our transportation problems while improving economic productivity. The entire country deserves the opportunity to see such a system in action.

Background: We believe that public pressure can move Governor Kaine to overrule his Secretary of Transportation, who continues to oppose the will of Virginians along the I-81 Corridor and accept a Federal grant to study the multi-state fast freight and passenger rail service in our Corridor. Establishing this service promptly is vital to our economic and environmental future. The study project initiative is the right thing to do, and is the first step to achieving huge reductions in national transportation-sector greenhouse gases. Eventually clean electricity will power these locomotives and the freight and passengers they pull. We deeply thank Rep. Boucher for his study initiative.

We want Governor Kaine to recognize the effort taken by a powerful fellow Democrat who represents a large portion of the I-81 Corridor. When we were petitioning Congress to act on the Steel Interstate, Senator Creigh Deeds along with 13 other senators and delegates signed a statement endorsing the effort. Now 46 government bodies in Virginia and Tennessee have joined in support. It is these efforts that Congressman Boucher was responding to.

The Governor has chosen not to meet with us; instead, RAIL Solution leaders are scheduling a meeting with two key gubernatorial aides. The Governor appears to be focusing attention on maximizing rail potential in the I-95 Corridor. That's fine, but he shouldn't neglect the other half of the state. All we are asking for is that VDOT accept a study grant. Gov. Kaine should accept it, if, for no other reason, not to tie the hands of his successor.

Though the project missed the House deadline for the presentation of such projects, Rep. Boucher still supports this initiative. He will work with us to get the two Virginia senators to support the project for their fall deadline.

Even prior to his appointment as Virginia Secretary of Transportation, Pierce Homer has demonstrated unrelenting opposition to any meaningful rail development in the I-81 Corridor which might forestall his $13 billion, 8-lane plan for I-81. The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted in 2006 to have Homer's plan informed by analysis of a multi-state rail alternative to massive I-81 lane widening. Homer refused to allow VDOT to consider any such alternative. VDOT is currently a defendant in a lawsuit challenging the I-81 Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement because of that refusal. The I-81 Corridor people and governments deserve better than to be ignored.

RAIL Solution

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