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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995                   TAG: 9503060089
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

NS, COMMUTER RAIL TALKS STALLED

Negotiations between Norfolk Southern and the Virginia Railway Express over the commuter railroad's use of track in Northern Virginia remain stalled.

VRE's contract with Norfolk Southern expired in November. Since then, the Potomac Rappahannock Transportation Commission and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, the regional transportation boards that oversee the commuter service, approved 30-day extensions. Both panels again extended the contract Thursday for another month.

Operations Director Steve Roberts said negotiations with Norfolk Southern have failed so far because ``they want to sell the line, the tracks, the whole nine yards. We're a long way from being comfortable with that concept.''

Norfolk Southern is trying to sell its tracks between Alexandria to Manassas. The line carries only about one-third of the freight most rail companies prefer in order to maintain a line, Roberts said.

The value of the tracks is estimated at $96 million, based on the taxes Norfolk Southern pays on the rail line.

``We don't have that much,'' Roberts said. The companies are looking into how much they could afford to pay, he said.

- Associated Press

by CNB