Higher-speed rail diverted in Richmond

Pardon those of us in South Hampton Roads for nursing a transportation persecution complex, but it's hard not to get a little suspicious after looking at the five options being considered for providing higher-speed passenger rail service to the region.

Only one of five alternatives envisions enough daily trips in and out of the south side to make the trains a meaningful alternative to driving. Three of the options offer nothing at all for the 1 million people who live here. In contrast, the Peninsula stands to see improvements to its existing and decrepit Amtrak service in four out of the five alternatives.

If that's not enough to inspire frustration and perhaps paranoia, there are the kooky cost estimates being used by state officials to suggest a south side route would be far more expensive than a Peninsula line.

The $412 million price tag hung on the rail upgrades for South Hampton Roads includes $150 million for a stretch from Richmond to Petersburg. That same rail segment is also counted in a separate project to construct high-speed rail from Washington to Petersburg, part of a corridor that ultimately will run along the East Coast.

The cost is being double-counted, and the south side project looks hugely expensive because of it.

State officials haven't released estimates for individual projects involving the Peninsula yet, but they have said that the cheapest alternative is $330 million. That makes the south side route actually cheaper. Take out the Richmond-to-Petersburg segment, and it weighs in at just $262 million.

In short, the south side route will serve twice as many people and cost less than improvements to the Peninsula rail line.

Officials with Norfolk Southern, who own the south side tracks along U.S. 460, have publicly questioned the state's estimates as excessive, but the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation continues to use the figures and has presented them to the Federal Railroad Administration, which will make a final decision on what it will fund.

It's not too late for political, business and community leaders in South Hampton Roads to make their pitch for higher-speed rail, but they need to understand they're starting off at an undeserved disadvantage. That means they're going to have to work harder and bellow louder, or they're going to be left out.

That would be a tremendous mistake. Seventy percent of Hampton Roads' population lives south of the James River. Sixty-seven percent of its businesses are located there, as well as its largest tourist attraction, Virginia Beach. South Hampton Roads is the second-largest population center in the state, yet it has no passenger rail service whatsoever.

State rail officials have rejected the idea of focusing all resources on the south side to the exclusion of the Peninsula. Under their list of options, the best South Hampton Roads can hope for is to share in federal rail funding with the Peninsula.

This region has long been gripped by a debilitating mentality that says any revenues must be spread thinly across multiple projects and communities to avoid upsetting anyone. That paralyzing mind-set appears to be surfacing once again, this time condoned and encouraged by the state.

The result - as it has been for years now - may well be that by refusing to make difficult choices about where to spend money, the entire region will end up with nothing.