‘Steel interstate’: Boucher seeks funds for rail ferry
published 4:09am Sunday Mar 29, 2009
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A Steel Interstate would let truckers to pull their rigs onto rails.PHOTO COURTESY RAIL SOLUTION
Seizing a moment in history under a president who favors funding railroads to stimulate the economy and move both freight and passengers, Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA, 9th) appears poised to secure cash for once-just-a-dream “Steel Interstate,” something supporters believe would pull trucks off Interstate 81 and create vast transportation efficiencies.
“Folks, if it hasn’t sunk in yet, I am here to tell you that the Steel Interstate System is how we’re going to handle essential shipments and personal intercity travel in a post oil world,” Michael Testerman tells members of the Virginia Association of Rail Passengers in an email. Testerman is president of that group and just returned from a three-day Capitol Hill visit to lobby for a Steel Interstate.
The Steel Interstate that Testerman has in mind is an upgrade of the existing Norfolk Southern rail corridor between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that would allow long-haul truckers to park their rigs aboard large-scale, fast-moving ferry trains to avoid driving along hilly and already-clogged Interstate 81.
Testerman says Boucher has offered to introduce language in the reauthorization bill for the existing six-year transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, to designate this Shenandoah Valley corridor as a pilot segment and get funding to plan the first phase of what Testerman calls a National Steel Interstate System.
After last year’s fuel price shocks, railroads increased the tenor of their efficiency merits, with CSX Corporation running television ads claiming the company can move a ton of freight 423 miles on a single gallon of fuel.
Already, President Obama has made his $8 billion commitment to high-speed rail the centerpiece of his controversial economic recovery plan. Testerman says a Steel Interstate has already garnered resolutions from 21 supportive Tennessee and Virginia jurisdictions and that such system will “revolutionize” American transportation.
Nice to wake up to some good news — love the CSX add “How Tomorrow Moves”
Mike:
The concept works on Amtrak’s Auto Train from Washington DC to Sanford, Florida, and once worked on the Louisville to Sanford Corridor. It could work on the I-81 Corridor,(perhaps even elsewhere) providing
1. Sufficient infrastructure (loading-unloading) terminals are available
2. Scheduled frequent trains is used. Perhaps 3 daily trains.
3. NS freight rates are lower than the truck’s operating cost.
4. Traffic congestion continues to increase, where drivers can no longer reach designations in timely manners.
One initial problem will be finding sufficient passenger coachs to tranport the drivers. Railroads will not permit drivers to remain in their cabs during transit. Amtrak doesn’t have enough equipment to meet its current demand. Most likely, NS will not want to operate its own passenger cars and will seek to farm this portion out either to Amtrak or another Passenger Train Agency / Organizations.
Mike, in the past, when I used to see ideas and concepts such as this one, I tended to discount them as being unrealistic. Now, so many of these ideas and concepts are now being real. (CP Rail new 230 mile coal line to the Power River Basin, BNSF’s triple tracking its southern California Mountain passages, the new PPP (NS Columbus - Norfolk Heartland Corridor), Meridan Speedway, Alemdia Corridor, and etc. I no longer discount anything any more. It is a unique concept and an is much more cost effective & energy & environmentally friendly solution than building additional I-81 lanes.
It is realized that the demand for all modes of transportation is going to douple or triple within the next 15 years. Our current Obama Infrastructure Fund will not come any where meetinhg our future need. While we enjoy relative smooth transportation acess today, because of the economy, our nation is going to experience treminous congestion problems, upon economy recovery. It is a reality, that all most all state and federal DOT & other transportation professionals,advise our nation faces, but our elected leaders, as well as J.Q Public, don’t want to face.
NS successfully moved unit trains of FEMA trailers from Elkhart, Indiana to the Gulf Coast. “If it wanted to, then it could make the I-81 Truck-Train Concept work.”
Best regards.
John Licht
[...] Boucher of Virginia might try to get money for a “steel interstate” system parallel to I-81, allowing freight to travel by rail instead of truck. (The [...]