Virginia senator will chair new two-state oversight board for fast trains (News and Observer)
Determined to dodge extra chores that could get in the way of their re-election priorities this year, two North Carolina politicians deftly engineered the election of a Virginia legislator today as the first chairman of the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Compact.
Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat, nominated Virginia Sen. John C. Watkins to chair the 10-member board, which held its inaugural meeting in Raleigh, reports Bruce Siceloff.
“We’re in an election cycle and you folks aren’t,” Cole explained, smiling across the boardroom table at his Virginia counterparts. “We need to devote more time to it.”
Sen. Clark Jenkins, a Tarboro Democrat, seconded the nomination, and Watkins was elected without opposition.
Cole did not escape the burden of new duties altogether. A few moments later, on Jenkins’ nomination, Cole was voted vice chair.
Watkins, a Republican from Midlothian, Va., said the new two-state board will work to promote what he called “higher-speed” train service.
“It would be so much easier for the consumers who now have to fly through Charlotte or wherever,” Watkins said in an interview. “It makes a lot more sense to be able to get on a train that you can depend on to be on time — and just go.”
North Carolina and Virginia won $620 million in federal stimulus funds this year to make corridor improvements south of Raleigh and north of Richmond. North Carolina received the first $20.3 million of its share from Washington today, and will use the money to refurbish train locomotives and passenger coaches.
The two states plan eight public hearings, starting tonight in Norlina, on a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed $2.3 billion, 162-mile link from Raleigh to Richmond. Part of the planned Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, it would cut travel times between the state capitals by two hours.
Along with Cole and Jenkins, North Carolina is represented on the compact by Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, a Concord Republican, Rep. John May, a Louisburg Democrat, and Paul Cooke of Charlotte, an executive with HDR Engineering Inc. Virginia’s members are two senators and three House of Delegates members.
Submitted by janestancill on 2010-07-12 15:18
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