🚀 go-pugleaf

If VDOT has a "pave it" attitude, I wish they would do more paving in
Northern Virginia or the Northern Neck.

The highway users pay their own way in fuel and use taxes.

I don't know how utililty and railroad property is tax.  If the right-of-way
is taxed, perhaps an adjustment is in order.  OTOH, railroads have a way an
declaring property excess and then selling it to developers.  Crystal City
(just south of DC in VA) was once railroad property.

If you want VDOT to lay railroad tracks and operate their RR like a toll
highway (anyone permitted who pays the toll) then say so.


Bruce Harper wrote in message ...
>In article <76vsq3$qe3$1@lark.jmu.edu>, Bogus@nospam.com (David R. Fordham)
>wrote:
>
>>The railroads are far, far, way far, amazingly far, far,
>>more efficient at moving that SAME EXACT freight, all 2000 tons of
>>it, with five engines, five "drivers", and far fewer encounters with
>>automobiles, and with a much higher safety rating per mile-ton moved.
>
>This is the prime reason why Norfolk Southern and CSX were willing
>to spend millions of dollars to acquire Conrail -- to better compete
>against trucks.  Norfolk Southern and Conrail already have a good
>interchange set up in Hagerstown, Md. to move trailer trains between
>the South and the Northeast.  But even though that is somewhat
>seamless, it still involves two railroads and the resulting paperwork
>and everything else that goes with it.  With NS in control of the
>tracks from New Orleans to New York, it is much easier to move a
>train from one point to the other.  Once the acquistion of Conrail
>is completed in March, NS will begin to aggressively remove truck
>traffic from the I-81 and I-95 corridors.  NS already works well
>with UPS and with the various auto makers at moving time-sensitive
>traffic.  NS also runs RoadRailers, truck trailers fitted with rail
>wheels and couplers that enable a string of trailers to be moved in
>a unit train.  At the destination, the rail equipment is removed, a
>local tractor picks up the trailer, and it is delivered to its local
>destination.
>
>VDOT still has a strong "pave it" mentality in Richmond, so there are
>no qualms about spending over $1 _billion_ to improve I-81 for trucks
>(car traffic is secondary).  It would be more cost effective to give
>money to NS and CSX for intermodal terminals in the north and south
>to cut down on the traffic volume on Virginia interstates.  Two Virginia
>corporations (who have private rights of way that they pay taxes on)
>would see greater revenue (more money for Virginia) and higher stock
>dividends (tax revenue from Virginia stockholders paying taxes).
>
>But that solution is too simple and doesn't fit in the "pave it" thoughts
>of VDOT.  So Virginia drivers are destined to continue to fight trucks
>and heavy through traffic.
>
>Bruce in Blacksburg
>
>--
>Bruce B. Harper
>Blacksburg, Virginia  24060