Virginia not applying for federal funds for high-speed rail

Virginia is not going after billions of dollars in federal funds available now for high-speed rail.

State officials said Virginia cannot qualify for either of two sources of federal money for the work.

"We were being realistic," said state Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton.

The state can't build the proposed Richmond-Washington rail link fast enough to qualify for 100 percent federal stimulus funding, according to the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. And Virginia doesn't have the matching dollars needed to receive money from another federal rail fund.

Twenty-four states, the District of Columbia and Amtrak are vying for the $2.4 billion in federal aid that became available when Florida's governor canceled a high-speed rail project in his state, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday.

The state rail agency estimates making the improvements for high-speed passenger rail service between Richmond and Washington will cost $1.8 billion.

To qualify for total funding from the federal stimulus program, the state would have to complete the Richmond-Washington project by 2017, but the state does not yet have the federally required advanced environmental impact approvals for the work.

"Virginia would have to complete the lengthy federal environmental process and construct the project in six years," Thelma Drake, the state's director of rail and public transportation, wrote the Federal Railroad Administration this week.

"Historically, the environmental process alone has required up to eight years to complete," Drake said. "Virginia's best estimate for corridor project completion, under the assumption of a swift agreement and a succinct environmental process, is 2021."

State rail officials had expected the Richmond-Washington project to take until 2030 to build. "We have shaved as much time off as we could" to get to a 2021 completion, said Kevin Page, the state's chief of rail transportation.

If Virginia missed the 2017 deadline, the state would have risked having to pay the federal government back for the high-speed rail grant funds it had received and losing any unspent funds.

To avoid the 2017 deadline, which the state described as unrealistic, Virginia would have had to apply for money from a separate $800 million pot of federal rail money.

Those funds, however, require states to put up a share of the project's cost, and, Drake said, given the state's straitened budget, "Virginia does not have the 20 percent match requirement."

The state wants to build a faster passenger rail system by linking a group of small, if expensive, improvements to eventually allow trains to run at 90-110 mph. Top speed now for passenger trains in Virginia is 79 mph.

Improved passenger rail service is high on the transportation priority list for local and state business and government officials.

"The process appears to be difficult, at best, for states to actually get the money and put it to work," said Kim Scheeler, president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Chamber. "From the business community's standpoint, we're going to continue to work with the state and federal government to figure out how to build a high-speed system in the state."

"It's pretty disappointing," concurred Daniel L. Plaugher, executive director of Virginians for High Speed Rail, a Richmond-based group of people, businesses, government and community organizations advocating for better passenger rail service in Virginia.

"But it has less to do with the state than the poorly designed and pretty badly implemented federal program. It's so cumbersome," Plaugher said. "The federal program needs to be streamlined."

Conceding disappointment over the state's decision, Charles E. Gates Jr., spokesman for the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission, said, "We don't feel that it's in the best interest of the state to spend a lot of time preparing an application (for the federal funds) that wouldn't gain anything."

The Transportation Department is reviewing 90 applications seeking a total of $10 billion for high-speed rail projects, LaHood said.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to make fast trains accessible to 80 percent of Americans within 25 years.

However, Obama is receiving resistance from Republicans, who say the trains should be rejected unless they will be self-supporting. GOP governors in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin have canceled high-speed train projects in their states.

Besides Amtrak and the District of Columbia, also applying for the federal high-speed rail money are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

pbacque@timesdispatch.com

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