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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 24, 1995                   TAG: 9508240014
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TRAIN STATION

To be sure, a proposal to restore passenger-rail service in Southwest Virginia, from Bristol to Richmond and Washington, D.C., is not yet on track.

The General Assembly has not yet (1) agreed to the proposal, much less indicated that (2) it will provide necessary state funding. Norfolk Southern, over whose rails the passenger trains would have to move, has yet to signal that (3) the company is on board.

Nonetheless, an advisory group to the New River Planning District Commission has recommended that a study begin now to find the best site for a passenger rail station in the New River Valley. Why put off until tomorrow what can be done today?

The panel's recommendation is keyed to a state study's preliminary findings that such passenger-rail service would be economically feasible, and that it could be operating by 2000, either under Amtrak's management or the state's. That's a very big could be, contingent upon the above-mentioned (1) (2) and (3), among other unresolved factors.

But the advisory group says the station study will demonstrate the region's commitment to passenger-rail service.

It's attitude is cheerful and refreshing. Perhaps the General Assembly and Norfolk Southern will conclude that such optimism should not go unrewarded.