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

DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995                   TAG: 9511170071
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RAIL SERVICE PROPOSAL SUPPORTED

\ Roughly 50 people turned out for a public hearing in Roanoke Thursday night on proposed rail service from Bristol to Richmond and Washington, D.C., and if any were against the idea, it wasn't evident.

"It's an outstanding notion," Barry Thomas of Roanoke said of the proposed service, which was found to be economically feasible in a preliminary study conducted by the state and released earlier this year. "I'd like to see not only individual citizens but larger groups such as businesses, the academic community and others get behind this thing."

Passenger train service would be good for the economy and good for the environment, he said. The concerns of the Norfolk Southern Corp. over whose track the passenger trains would use could be dealt with, he said.

Alan Tobias, a senior rail transportation engineer with the state, said NS wanted to make sure passenger service would not conflict with its existing freight service; that it be protected from liability related to the passenger service; and that the service not add to existing congestion in the NS yard in Lynchburg. Trains from Bristol would split in Lynchburg for the final leg of their trips to Washington or Richmond and be combined there on their return runs.

Tobias, however, said the state entered into the study expecting NS would have those kind of concerns.

The 1993 Virginia General Assembly requested a study of the feasibility of passenger rail service to Southwest Virginia and provided $250,000 to fund it. Preliminary findings were reported to the General Assembly in February, and a final report was completed last spring.

The report concluded that the passenger service - which could be operated by Amtrak, under contract to the state, or by the state itself - could break even in six or seven years and recover its initial investment and operating costs in 20 years.

The study found that over a 20-year period, the proposed service would bring in $1.04 in revenues for each dollar spent on operation and maintenance, including the purchase of the trains. The study projects nearly 500,000 riders using the service in its first year and more than a million using it annually by its 20th year.

High-speed tilt trains would be used for two trips a day in each direction. They would allow higher speeds without the need to rebuild track and make it possible for a train to make the trip from Bristol to Washington in 6 hours and 40 minutes, a time competitive with car travel.

Mary Sligh of Salem, who attended the hearing, said she supported passenger trains after getting acquainted with them this past summer in England.

Tom Combiths, Pulaski's town manager, said Pulaski grew up around the railroad, and people there support the return of passenger service.

This hearing, and others being held in Bristol and Lynchburg, will help the Commonwealth Transportation Board decide whether to go ahead with the second phase of the study, which will look at economic and planning issues in more detail, Tobias said.