In the East, gas tax to boost rail capacity

AP reports a 5-way partnership that will spend $150 million to upgrade select Norfolk Southern rail lines for double-stack container trains.

The Federal Highway Administration will pay the lion's share, $95 million, with the other 4 partners kicking in the other $55m: Norfolk Southern and the states of Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

Is this the way to break the logjam over using motor fuel tax for capital improvements in the rail network? AP's David Hammer seems to suggest as much.

The project also has the support of the trucking industry, even though it was funded under last year's federal highway bill as a way to reduce trucking traffic. Tim Lynch, senior vice president of American Trucking Associations, said more efficient rail transport between Norfolk, Va., and Chicago should improve trucking business at each end of the route and at the planned terminals along the way.

Lynch said the trucking industry's only concern is that a rail project is being funded by the highway bill, which largely draws on fuel taxes paid by motorists.

The Heartland Corridor project sets a new precedent for federal highway dollars, Lynch said. "If that will grow in priority, we have to evaluate where the revenues are coming in from," he said.

What does this have to do with passenger trains? Clearances raised to accommodate double-stack container trains are high enough for bi-level passenger cars like Amtrak's Superliners.