Thursday, December 20, 2007
Editorial: Trains alone won't fix I-81
A complete solution requires widening the highway.
From the RoundTable blog
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A coalition of conservation groups has some good ideas about dealing with the traffic that nearly overwhelms the Interstate 81 corridor. Yet rather than help craft a comprehensive solution they have chosen to pursue an inadequate solution through the courts.
The group sued in federal court this week to prevent the widening of I-81. It claims adding lanes to lengthy stretches of the highway would irreparably harm the environment, scenic vistas and cultural and historic sites such as Civil War battlefields.
They want the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation to develop a rail plan instead. The conservationists figure that if there were enough trains to move freight, two lanes in each direction on I-81 would be fine. Moreover, there would be no need to impose tolls as now might happen.
All of which is partially true. Freight trains -- and passenger trains for that matter -- could reduce the stress on the nation's highways, and tolls are an ill-advised way to pay for basic public infrastructure. That is why transportation engineers are already working on rail solutions.
The litigious conservationists are too optimistic about a solution that is too far off in the future. Rail, by itself, cannot fix the problem. As the region's population increases, the need to move goods and people increases also. Trains can only ease that; they cannot end it.
Plus, rail lines have challenges of their own. They, too, will disrupt land, and some communities will fight vigorously against them. One must look no farther than Elliston to find controversy. There, residents have no interest in an intermodal freight yard to divert traffic from I-81.
Trains alone will not be enough, nor will more lanes. Traffic planners must devise a comprehensive solution that incorporates multiple modes of transportation to move goods and people today and in the future.
The conservationists are entitled to their day in court. It would have been better, though, if they had brought with them a workable plan for an ailing transportation system.
