Forget
Passenger Rail
Norfolk
Southern's CEO provides clarity regarding the high
cost of infrastructure and the lack of political
will to pay for it. So much for the dreamy-eyed
fantasies of those pricey consultants.
For
Charles W. Moorman, it was a moment of truth. When
the president and CEO of rail giant Norfolk
Southern spoke at The World Affairs Council of
Greater Richmond early this month, question after
question popped up about what, if anything, a
profitable freight hauler like NS could do to
boost passenger rail. After all, passenger rail
service is seen by many as the no-brainer panacea
for severe car traffic congestion and pollution.
Trying
to be diplomatic, Moorman dodged and weaved.
Virginia, he said, has always been good to the
Norfolk- based railroad, which runs more than
21,000 miles of track in 22 eastern states and
Canada. “North Carolina,” he allowed,
“brings money to the table to add trains.”
California likewise has spent millions for one of
the best regional rail passenger service in the
country.
Yet
the questions kept coming. Finally, Moorman laid
it on the line. Bringing passenger service to any
appreciable level beyond Amtrak would require
tremendous infrastructure costs. “There isn’t
the political will to do it,” he said. And,
freight carriers like NS owe it to their
shareholders to stay profitable with what they do
best.
Finally,
a moment of clarity, I thought, since I was the
one who asked the question. It might not be what
many people want to hear, but Moorman should be
saluted for his honesty.
Why?
Every consultant that comes down the pike cites
improving high speed rail as a panacea for ills of
all sorts. There are dreamy plans for gleaming new
locomotives whisking people from Washington to
Richmond and points south, conjuring up images of
the old purple and aluminum Atlantic Coast Line
streamliners with their sloped-nosed E-6 diesels.
Or, the bright, citrus-colored Seaboard Air Line
ones, such as the “Orange Blossom Special.”
New liners could fly down former Southern Railway
lines from D.C. to Charlotte and Atlanta,
following the famous route of the crack green and
cream liveried Southern Crescent passenger
speedster.
Want
the latest in passenger rail delusions? Check out
the report that Dallas consultant James Crupi
prepared for Richmond economic development
authorities and so-called business “leaders”
at a cost of $150,000. Crupi calls for a
“dedicated high speed passenger rail system that
connects Richmond International Airport and the
city of Richmond with Washington/Dulles
International Airport.” The rail link would
“capture” a major international and freight
airport while turning Richmond’s airport into
the fourth D.C.-area air terminal.
Crupi
sees this new rail link whisking commuters
lightning-fast (an hour one way) from their
lucrative defense and government jobs in the D.C.
area to better and more affordable housing in the
Richmond area. The line would create a new
military-industrial job crescent from Tysons
Corner all the way down to Ft. Lee near
Petersburg. Crupi did not hazard a cost estimate
for the line.
Gee,
what kind of loco (motive) weed do they smoke down there in
Dallas? Virginia is a state ripped apart by
dogmatic, anti-tax Republicans who can barely fund
even routine transportation projects. The Virginia
Department of Transportation budget’s is
becoming mostly maintenance. The state has turned
to highly controversial regional tax authorities
to try and build road projects in clogged Northern
Virginia and Hampton Roads.
True,
the state does help the beneficial Virginia
Railway Express serving Northern Virginia
commuters, but there’s no way that the state
will fund anywhere close to the money needed to
put in any of the fantasy passenger rail projects.
Nationally, only about 13 states help fund
intra-state
rail service, including North Carolina and
California. The collective price tag was about
$345 million annually in 2003.
At
the World Affairs Council address, Moorman
declined to estimate what any of the intra-state
rail projects in Virginia might cost. In some
ways, it’s unfair to ask him. Most of the best
potential passenger routes are in the purview of
CSX, NS’s arch rival. CSX had been based in
Richmond until it skeedadled down to Florida after
CEO John Snow split for D.C. to become Treasury
Secretary. Amtrak regularly blames CSX for its
constant delays on Virginia lines.
To
get an idea of just how costly rail infrastructure
improvements are, consider that NS’s capital
budget is on the order of $1.4 billion – far
above what total state rail spending is for
passenger service. Moorman estimates that it will
cost $150 billion nationwide to handle freight
rail upgrades needed to handle new business
flowing in from the booming global economy.
Just
one NS project which has already been covered in Bacon's
Rebellion would cost $2 to $3 billion. Called
the “Crescent,” NS wants to upgrade rail lines
that roughly follow Interstate 81 and on, linking
what Moorman calls “Austin to Boston.” Another
leg would link the I-81 corridor with Memphis, a
major east-west transshipping point. Moorman says
the project might take a million truck loads off
the highways annually, which may be a good thing
for Virginia motorists on truck-clogged and
safety-challenged I-81.
NS
also is heavily investing in another route called
the “Heartland” that would improve container
shipments from Hampton Roads to Columbus, Ohio and
the Midwest. Doing so involves adding double
tracks and making mountain tunnels higher so more
efficient double-stacked trains can move through.
For
Virginia, one of the major drivers is the
explosion of imports arriving at Hampton Roads,
which Moorman notes has exceptional qualities.
Trade from places such as China is so brisk that
Danish carrier Maersk recently opening the most
expensive port facility ever in the U.S. Federal
funding seems likely to turn the old dredge spoil
site of Craney Island into a mammoth new container
facility.
Moorman
says the U.S. must keep up with emerging economic
giants such as China and India, which plan
enormous transport improvements. He notes he
recently visited an island about 20 miles off
Shanghai that was being dynamited to make one
great container terminal that would have the
capacity of the entire Norfolk area. That’s what
emerging economies are doing. If U.S. East Coast
ports, including those in Virginia, want a piece
of the coming action, they’ll have to keep
coming up with big money as the railroads must.
Too
bad such big questions have to be answered by such
little people, particularly the anti-tax zealots
in the state’s Republican Party, many of whom
live in the distant past and can’t comprehend
how the global economy is changing equations. As
for passenger rail, forget it.
--
December 10, 2007
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