
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 16, 1995                   TAG: 9502160094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NS CHAIRMAN: FREIGHT ALWAYS TAKES PRIORITY

Norfolk Southern Corp. would be "delighted" to allow passenger service on its tracks, but the company won't lose money on the service or jeopardize its freight business for it, David Goode, NS chairman, president and chief executive officer, told a Roanoke audience Wednesday.

"We are not negative about passenger service," Goode said. "It's just not our business. If there is a demand for passenger service, fine. We just won't subsidize it."

Goode, a Vinton native, spoke at the regular weekly meeting of the Roanoke Kiwanis Club, where he was a member before moving to NS headquarters in Norfolk four years ago. He also was in the Roanoke Valley to speak Wednesday night to employees of NS's marketing department, who were celebrating the company's sales and earnings records last year.

Preliminary findings of a state-sponsored study presented to a General Assembly committee this month declared that new passenger service along NS lines connecting Bristol, Richmond and Washington, D.C., could be economically feasible. Officials in communities along the route have pushed for the service, including Roanoke Mayor David Bowers. But Goode, in the past, has said he doubted there was a need for the service.

"The best thing Norfolk Southern can do for the Roanoke Valley is provide the world's finest freight transportation system," Goode told the Kiwanians meeting at the Radisson Patrick Henry Hotel.

He warned that allowing passenger service along NS's lines could require the construction of new track - at a cost of $2 million a mile - in places like the Roanoke Valley, where the existing track is some of the busiest in the nation and nearly filled to capacity with freight traffic. "We can't add track for passenger service unless someone is willing to pay," he said.

The railroad, Goode said, has little "wiggle" room to adjust its freight schedules. NS's customers, he said, demand reliable service or they'll put their freight back on the highways.

If passenger service proves economically viable and an operator such as Amtrak agrees to provide it, then NS would be "happy" to negotiate an agreement that meets its safety, liability, traffic and financial requirements, Goode said.

Goode also talked with the Kiwanians about the perspective he has gained on the Roanoke Valley from the distance of Tidewater. He heaped a train load of praise on the valley's quality of life, pointing out that factor as an important consideration of businesses seeking new locations.

He singled out as valuable assets the neighborliness of the valley's people, the City Market area, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Smith Mountain Lake and the region's natural beauty in general.

But Roanoke, Goode said, has a singular weakness that works against its many strengths - "a tendency toward excessive self-criticism."

This causes the community to fail to recognize and promote its strengths."I've never known a city quicker than Roanoke to doubt the value of its assets," he said.

by CNB