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Virginia Governor-elect Bob McDonnell recently named Thelma Drake director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT).

She previously was a U.S. representative for Virginia’s 2nd congressional district and a Virginia House of Delegates member. Drake also served on transportation committees in both government bodies.

Meanwhile, the DRPT and Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) released a draft version of an Interstate 81 freight-rail study and are seeking public comments on the initial analysis.
 
In 2006, the Commonwealth Transportation Board directed the DRPT to conduct the study in conjunction with VDOT's Multimodal Office and Norfolk Southern Railway to identify short-term rail improvements and ways to divert truck traffic from the I-81 corridor. By 2035, the corridor’s truck traffic is projected to increase 111 percent.
 
The study determined the number of potential diversions could fall between 965,000 and 1.6 million truck trips annually by 2035, depending on the adopted strategy — such as an “open technology” calling for trucks and their trailers to be rolled onto trains for long-haul shipments — DRPT officials said in a prepared statement.
 
Virginia’s portion of the I-81 corridor includes NS’ proposed Crescent Corridor, a 2,500-mile domestic intermodal route to be established between the Northeast and Gulf Coast. The study’s three initial recommendations call for advancing the Crescent Corridor, investigating other “potentially feasible” truck-to-rail diversion strategies and continuing to advance improvements identified in an I-81 Tier I environmental impact statement, according to DPRT.