Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505170085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
Alan Tobias, a senior rail transportation engineer for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, presented the results of the study's final draft Tuesday at a meeting of the transportation committee of the New River Valley Planning District Commission.
"All in all, I think the report is very positive," Tobias said. "It appears there's a desire for this type of service and that people will use it if it's available."
The 1993 Virginia General Assembly requested the study and provided $250,000 to fund its first phase. Frederic R. Harris Inc., a Fairfax consulting firm, did the work. Preliminary findings were reported to the General Assembly in February and they changed little in the final report, Tobias said.
After the report is reviewed by an advisory group of transportation experts on June 2, the public will be asked to comment on it. Those hearings probably will not be held until July because of 30-day advertising requirements.
The department hopes to make recommendations to next year's General Assembly, Tobias said. If the legislature decides to go ahead with passenger service, it could be operating before the turn of the century, he said.
The report concludes that the proposed passenger service - which could be operated either by Amtrak, under contract to the state or by the state itself - could break even in six or seven years and recoup its initial investment and operating costs in 20 years, Tobias said.
Passenger service recommended by the consultants would require $12.7 million for the construction of maintenance and train storage buildings in Lynchburg, where eastbound trains would split for Washington or Richmond and westbound trains would join for the trip to Bristol.
Operating costs of the service over 20 years, including the purchase of four trains, would be $284.3 million, the study found. Operating revenues over 20 years would total $304.3 million, it concluded.
Tobias said the department was concerned about preliminary ridership figures that showed more than 500,000 people using the service in its first year. But a double check of those projections reduced them only a little, he said. The number of riders in the service's 20th year is projected at more than a million a year, he said.
Proposed operating costs of the service actually may be too high, Tobias said, because they were based on the costs of operating commuter service in Northern Virginia - and that usually is more expensive than long-distance service.
Stations along the route would cost roughly $500,000 each to build. But the communities where the trains stop would be responsible for the cost of building stations, Tobias said.
The study recommends a service that would run twice daily in each direction and use a type of passenger car with wheels that easily follow curves, allowing higher speeds, and with cabins that tilt in curves to provide a smoother ride. This type of train could make the trip from Bristol to Washington in 6 hours and 40 minutes and from Bristol to Richmond in 6 hours and 10 minutes. That would be competitive with car travel, Tobias said.
Conventional Amtrak-style service would not work because it would be too slow, the study found.
The use of "tilt trains" would eliminate the need to rebuild the track with banked curves to accommodate fast passenger trains and would be more compatible with freight traffic, Tobias said. Norfolk Southern Corp., over whose track most of the proposed service would run, has flattened all its curves to help prevent damage to the track from its heavy freight trains, he said.
Tobias said NS has not been enthusiastic about new passenger service on its tracks, but said he believed the railroad would do what it could to accommodate the service.
NS Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer David Goode has said the railroad would not subsidize passenger service or let it jeopardize its freight business.
This year's General Assembly gave the Commonwealth Transportation Board authority to approve the final phase of the feasibility study, which will more closely examine the ridership potential.
The state also is studying the potential for a new high-speed passenger train connecting Washington, Richmond and Tidewater.
by CNB