Rails to Trails and with Trails

As I clear out my school-induced backlog, I'm sorry to say that I failed to alert you of the opening of Virginia's newest section of rail trail. A 12-mile segment of the High Bridge Trail between Prospect and Farmville opened on June 6th at 9:00am (the same day as the Wilson Bridge opening - perhaps you could have done both - but it seems like a lot). This section connects with four miles opened in August of 2008. The High Bridge Trail will eventually run 33.8 miles from Pamplin to Burkeville, but right now only the 16 mile Prospect to Appomattox River section is open. The 2400 foot long High Bridge itself is the next scheduled section to be opened, a $2M project that is estimated to take about 18 months.

That's all pretty quick considering the train only quit running in 2004 and the ROW wasn't handed over until 2006.

The section open now sounds like a railroad buffs dream.

Examples of the isolation of this zone are everywhere… telegraph poles erected in the 1900’s still bear antique ceramic insulators. The original cement mile markers built by Norfolk Southern are in pristine condition and are considered the official trail markers. Each one of them are a historic landmark in their own right and a wonder to behold. To either sides of the trail are remnants of the old rail way signal system — signs and devices used by the engineers to determine their status along the rail system. In other places these treasures have been carted off to adorn private collections… but they have been spared that fate here.

But Virginia isn't just working on Rails to Trails. It's working on Rails with Trails too.

The VBF and 31 other organizations are calling for the inclusion of bike and pedestrian facilities on future rail upgrade, enhancement and improvement projects throughout Virginia and the United States.

Among the groups adding their support are ... the Washington Area Bicycling Association, a powerful force for bike advocacy in our nation’s capital.

Besides freight corridor projects, such as the I-81, “Crescent Corridor” and “Heartland Corridor” running from Chicago to Portsmouth, VA, there are currently ten major high-speed passenger rail corridors proposed for improvement along the east coast, according to the Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s, Director, Charles M.  “Chip” Badger.  In a presentation to the Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board on June 17, Mr. Badger stated that over $8 Billion in federal capitol grants have been proposed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to improve rail passenger services.  These funds will be available until September 30, 2012.  $1B will then be allocated each year for five years to supplement these projects.

The VBF feels that some of these tax dollars should be used to include multi-modal, bike and pedestrian paths as projects as these corridors are upgraded.

Including trails with future rail projects could be an enormous boon to cyclists, it's like "Complete Rails."

Finally, in news for rail trails, the Surface Transportation Board has scheduled a public hearing for July 8 at its headquarters in Washington, D. C., "to examine the impact, effectiveness, and future of rail banking" under the National Trails System Act now that's it 25 years old.

The hearing now scheduled on the program's future arises out of "an increasing number of questions brought to the board informally."

Formally, the board has pending a proposal involving R. J. Corman Railroad Co./Pennsylvania Lines Inc. in Clearfield County ,Pa., to construct and operate over 10 miles of a previously abandoned right-of-way and reactivate a 9.3-mile portion of a connecting rail-banked line. STB has been informally asked "who would be responsible for bearing the cost of rebuilding a railroad bridge removed during interim trail use if active rail service should ever be restored."

This is one of the questions STB will tackle as it seeks to determine how successful rail-banking has been for both carriers and trail users.

Rail-banking is a critical tool for trail building, but it relies on the idea that the rail corridor is actually banked. If lines cannot be restored when needed, it will remove one of the key reasons of support for the program.

To date, the Board has authorized nine rail banked lines for the restoration of rail service.

The question of who pays for a removed bridge could have expensive implications, but unfortunately the other "informal" questions are not mentioned.

Any person wishing to speak at the hearing should file with the Board a combined notice of intent to participate (identifying the party, the proposed speaker, the time requested, and the topic(s) to be covered) and the person’s written testimony, as soon as possible, but no later than June 29, 2009. Also, any interested person who wishes to submit a written statement without appearing at the July 8 hearing should file that statement by June 29, 2009.