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Virginia dedicates more money to rail assistance program • Virginia Mercury [1]
['Nathaniel Cline', 'More From Author', '- March']
Date: 2024-03-20
Virginia is continuing its plans to promote the use of freight rail to transport goods by providing an additional $300,000 per award for its rail grant assistance program. The Rail Industrial Access Program policy change comes after Virginia launched a successful statewide effort to increase ridership following a sharp decline during the pandemic. Officials said the efforts to promote rail could help to reduce carbon emissions and traffic congestion.
On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Transportation Board voted unanimously on the proposal recommended by the Department of Rail and Public Transportation to increase funding and make policy changes to its rail incentive program. Jennifer DeBruhl, executive director of DRPT, said freight rail investments removed about 14 million trucks from the road last year.
“Those are 14 million trucks that would have been on the commonwealth’s roadways creating congestion, [and] impacting the longevity of our pavements and bridges,” said DeBruhl.
Under the existing program, the Rail Industrial Access Program helps businesses through an application process by offering $450,000 grants to connect to train tracks instead of using trucks. Staff recommended the Commonwealth Transportation Board increase each matching grant to $750,000. Funding requires a 30% match by the applicant.
The program supports funding for engineering and environmental mitigation projects, and tracks construction and improvements.
DeBruhl said the increase in funding is the department’s effort to keep up with inflation since it was last updated in 1995.
Some of the policy changes to the program include requiring the grantee to estimate the proposed facility’s rail and truck utilization ratio in their application, performance measures, and providing the program director the authority to extend grants. New language was also included to make it clear that grants to aid in the relocation of a business within Virginia will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Buckingham Branch Railroad, a shortline railroad, and Houff Corporation, which provides agricultural and industrial services to farmers, are businesses that have benefitted from the program.
Neil Houff, president of Houff Corporation, said the company has received numerous grants from the program.
With assistance from the grants, Houff said the company has helped to store deicing salt for the Virginia Department of Transportation at its storing facilities.
“The first grant put us into the rail business some 15 to 18 years ago,” Houff said. “For us, it has been a beneficial program. It’s been a bit of a beneficial program for the state in the amount of trucks that it has pulled off of the interstate.”
DeBruhl said freight has been an important part of the grant assistance program.
“These investments really bring back dividends for the commonwealth in terms of economic development jobs,” DeBruhl said, “and then taking trucks off the road or keeping trucks off the road, which is really why we use transportation funds to invest in those projects.”
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