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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993                   TAG: 9308250253
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BRISTOL                                LENGTH: Medium

AMTRAK ISN'T ONLY RAIL GAME, SENATOR SAYS

"We've heard a lot of criticism about Amtrak not being sound and able to operate in the black," Sen. William Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, said.

Wampler, a member of the Finance Committee's subcommittee on transportation, asked Leo Bevon of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to conduct a marketing plan for the rail service.

Wampler said Bevon, in a June meeting with Bristol, Tenn., and Bristol, Va., officials, estimated that rail service could be supplied with no capital startup costs.

"We've asked Mr. Bevon to put together a plan of what it would take to operate routes that would be cost-effective," Wampler said Monday.

After a preliminary study, Bevon estimated a 400-seat train could be leased and run on existing rails.

Wampler said there are two proposed routes - one from Bristol to Richmond and a second from Bristol to Washington, D.C., via Roanoke and Lynchburg.

Wampler said if an average of 200 tickets were sold each time the train ran, at an estimated one-way ticket price of $39 for the Bristol-to-Richmond route, the service would be self-supporting. Because money collected from ticket sales could be used to pay the lease cost of the equipment, Wampler said, there would be virtually no subsidy required.

There already is Amtrak service linking Clifton Forge, Charlottesville, Northern Virginia and Washington; Greensboro, N.C., Lynchburg and Washington; and Norfolk, Richmond and Washington.

A proposal to install an Amtrak route from New York to Atlanta via Bristol is part of a 1992 Amtrak study. Although city officials along the way have endorsed the route, U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and others have said they are concerned about the federal subsidy that would be required to implement the service.

The Amtrak study estimates it will cost about $60 million, but Boucher said the actual cost likely will be greater.

Wampler said the proposal he supports would cost much less but still could make rail service available to Virginia residents. If implemented, the train would stop at towns all along the route, Wampler said, adding that it would take about five hours and 45 minutes to get from Bristol to Richmond.

Bevon's mission now is to determine if such routes could draw the needed ridership to break even, Wampler said. Bevon has been asked to conduct the marketing study and report back to the subcommittee.

Wampler said the most difficult part of implementing such service would be negotiating with the railroad companies for use of their rails and coordinating schedules. He said the two proposed routes would touch on both the Norfolk Southern and CSX rails.

But, if successful, the passenger rail service through Virginia could prove such service is needed and act as an enticement for Amtrak, Wampler said.

"This could show the demand is there," Wampler said. "Then, if Amtrak came, we could phase this out or decide to keep both. My main priority is to get passenger rail service here quickly."