Group wants new route for high-speed rail

NORFOLK

Before plans for bringing higher-speed trains to Hampton Roads get too far down the track, Future Hampton Roads members want political leaders to consider new routes.

The options now on the table include spurs from Richmond either along the freight railroad tracks that parallel U.S. 460 into Norfolk, on the current Amtrak line along Interstate 64 on the Peninsula, or both.

A study of those alternatives is due to be released by state rail officials soon. Officials hope to tap into some of the $8 billion in federal stimulus money set aside for high-speed rail.

Future Hampton Roads leaders, however, don't want to be at the end of a spur. Instead, they want to see the alignment loop through the region and better connect with the main high-speed rail line proposed for Southeastern states.

They said Hampton Roads' economic potential already was hurt when the region got a single interstate spur, Interstate 64, when the national highway system was built more than 40 years ago.

The group held a town hall meeting at Old Dominion University Friday on high-speed rail. Future Hampton Roads is a think tank dedicated to improving the region's competitiveness.

"We will end up being a cul-de-sac region," said Clyde R. Hoey II, Future Hampton Roads vice president and former president of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. "We cannot afford to miss out on the development of the high-speed rail."

Ray Taylor, president of Future Hampton Roads and a former rear admiral, said that among the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Hampton Roads is one of four regions not on a main line of a high-speed rail proposal.

"We've got to lift our sights to aim higher," Taylor said.

The proposed main high-speed rail line in Virginia follows Interstate 95 from Washington to North Carolina with a spur to Hampton Roads on an alignment yet to be decided.

Instead of dead-ending in Hampton Roads, leaders of the group suggest that the line loop from Richmond to the Peninsula, cross the James River on a new drawbridge near Williamsburg, go through Suffolk and then reconnect in North Carolina; or make a bend at Petersburg into Suffolk, then back west toward Weldon and Norlina, N.C.

North Carolina put bends and loops in its proposed route to hit Chapel Hill, Greensboro and Winston-Salem on the way to Charlotte, they said, adding to the line's cost and the time it would take to get to Charlotte or Atlanta.

Leaders of Future Hampton Roads said they've been told by state and local leaders that their proposal comes too late. The study on a Hampton Roads connection has been in the works for four years and is nearly complete.

"We're being told that if we rock the boat, we might not get money from Uncle Sam or from Richmond," said Louis Guy, retired Norfolk public works director.

Brad Face, co-chairman of Virginians for High Speed Rail who served on the panel of the town hall meeting, agreed that too much work has been done to change directions now considering the limited window for federal funding.

"Let's grab what we can get now and let's not be left out of the game," he said.

Face added that geography, not transportation decisions, has made Hampton Roads a cul-de-sac.

"We are what we are, but this isn't bad," he said. "We can be a southern terminus like Boston is a northern terminus."

Meanwhile, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, made of elected leaders from across the region, is having a special meeting at 11:30 a.m. Friday to discuss the future of high-speed rail.

Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com