Month: December 2008

NEW YORK — The U.S. Department of Transportation will begin accepting expressions of interest to finance, design, build, operate and maintain high-speed trains on the Northeast Corridor and in 10 other federally-designated corridors around the nation. “This is a first step in a process established by Congress to put ideas to paper, and to make concrete proposals for what the future might look like,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said. “Imagine traveling by train between New York City and Washington, D.C. in just two hours or cutting your trip time by 25 percent between New York City and Boston,” Peters said.

ROANOKE, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. has offered a challenge grant of $1 million to the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) for capital and operating expenses over a three-year period to help the museum implement certain recommendations from Museum Management Consultants. The challenge grant is contingent on equal commitments of support by both the governments of the Roanoke Region and by other private donors to meet the estimated $3 million required for the museum’s long-term needs. Norfolk Southern also will assist museum staff in drawing up a three-year business plan and establishing measurable objectives to restore the museum’s vitality. In

WASHINGTON – A new study for the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on competition in the freight railroad industry says that “both railroads and their customers benefited” from the partial rail deregulation introduced by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. The study also rejected the principal proposals for reregulation of the railroad industry, saying they could harm the industry or would otherwise be inappropriate. “We’re pleased that this independent study has affirmed key economic principles on which the STB has relied for many years in its regulation of the railroad industry,” said Association of American Railroads (AAR) President and CEO Edward