Local lawmakers and advocates are calling on the Commonwealth Transportation Board to slow down their surprise push to move forward with a nearly $700 million plan for a recreational trail that would also preserve a dilapidated rail line through the Shenandoah Valley for potential future use. WMRA’s Bridget Manley reports.
The railroad line, owned by Norfolk Southern, has been out of service for decades. The decaying 50-mile line runs through the towns of Broadway, Edinburg, Woodstock, Toms Brook, Strasburg, and Front Royal. Hoping to gain economic benefits from the proposed trail, the towns and counties, along with other groups, formed Friends of the Shenandoah Rail Trail to support the rail-to-trail plan. That would convert the rail line into a recreational path, mainly forwalking and bicycling.
In 2021, the Virginia General Assembly conducted a feasibility study and ultimately reserved $35 million to purchase the land and begin site development for the rail-to-trail.
Then, in a surprise move, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which had originally supported the rail-to-trail, broke with the 17 other groups that had been supporting the trail and proposed a rail-with-trail line.
The group Save The Rails in the Shenandoah Valley, an activist group formed to support the rails-with-trails plan, states on its website that the rails-with-trails solution would preserve the historic railroad for future service.
Neither the group Save The Rails nor the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation was immediately available for comment.
The Virginia Department of Transportation conducted a second feasibility study, this time examining the rails-with-trails option, and the findings were released in three installments this year. According to the study’s cost estimates, building a trail and the rail in the corridor would cost nearly $687 million. In contrast, the rail-to-trail option would cost an estimated $164 million.
Now, much of the criticism centers on the rush in which the Commonwealth Transportation Board, or CTB, seems to be in to approve the recommendation to move forward with the much more expensive rail-with-trail option.
The CTB added the trail presentation to its agenda mere hours before the close of business the day before the December 9 meeting was scheduled. In his presentation, John Lawson, the Virginia Deputy Secretary of Transportation, recommended moving forward with the preservation of the rail corridor and the trail together and transferring the project to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) to partner with the Battlefields Foundation to execute the development.
The following week, the VPRA voted in a virtual meeting to authorize the transfer of the $35 million from the CTB to purchase the land from Norfolk Southern, if the CTB votes in favor of the rail-with-trail.
KATE WOFFORD: Honestly, the process for this new proposal is quite rushed, and it lacks transparency.
Kate Wofford is the executive director of the Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, one of the groups working toward the rail-to-trail. Wofford and a few other stakeholders scrambled to Richmond to speak during public comment at the CTB work session after learning that the trail item had been added to the agenda.
WOFFORD: The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and the Commonwealth Transportation Board are being asked to make a rushed decision within the next month on a proposal that appears to be very last-minute and has not been vetted. It has not received the public engagement, community review, or the technical scrutiny that you would expect for a major transfer of public funds to a private entity. Especially one that would shape the Shenandoah Valley for generations.
Wofford said that the public meetings and community input, which are usually part of the process and were recommended by VDOT on the assessment, were mysteriously removed from the website, even though they were initially scheduled after the phase three release.
On Tuesday, the nine mayors from the towns along the trail sent a joint letter to the CTB, requesting that the board postpone its decision from the January 6 meeting due to the hurried process.
TONY WILT: I know there’s a whole lot of other people; they have a lot of questions about what the secretary of transportation released back at the last Commonwealth of Transportation Board meeting. There’s a ton of questions that people have, and I think they deserve at least have a chance to have them ask their questions.
Delegate Tony Wilt, who represents Harrisonburg and parts of eastern Rockingham County, agrees. Wilt has been on the fence about which project was the better option, waiting to show his support until the second feasibility study was complete.
His concerns also lie with the rush, the process, and the underlying questions that have still not been answered. In particular, the CTB and the VPRA have reserved the right to take back the funding if the Battlefields Foundation does not build the trail.
WILT: The Secretary at the Commonwealth Transportation Board said, “If this is not done in a timely manner, we will pull it back, we will claw it back.” How does that work? I’m a simple person, but I’ve bought a house before. And, you know, you’ve got two different parties, you sit down at the table, and you work through all that. I mean, that’s a legally binding contract. Who does the clawing back?
At the December 9 meeting, some of the CTB members expressed concerns about the process. Still, Virginia Transportation Secretary W. Sheppard Miller hinted that he was fully in favor of moving forward with the rails-with-trails plan.
The vote is scheduled for Tuesday,January 6.
