Re: (rshsdepot) Railroad Preservation and ISTEA: Are You on Board?

["Eric Miller" <empirebuilder_@_earthlink.net>]

did you write this? if so, may we have permission to reprint it at
www.newcolonist.com? Eric Miller
- ----- Original Message -----
From: James Dent <james.dent_@_itochu.com>
To: RSHS List <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 11:46 AM
Subject: (rshsdepot) Railroad Preservation and ISTEA: Are You on Board?


> This year marks the tenth anniversary of the landmark overhaul of Federal
> surface transportation spending program known as ISTEA-the Intermodal
> Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. ISTEA and its 1998
> reauthorization, TEA-21, represent the most radical overhaul of Federal
> surface transportation spending since the creation of the Interstate
highway
> system during the Eisenhower administration. In a sharp break with past
> practices, which required states to spend every dollar they received from
> the Federal highway trust fund to build new roads, ISTEA allows states to
> use up to half their money for "flexible use" transit alternatives,
> including commuter rail, light rail, subways, bike trails, or nearly any
> other legitimate transportation purpose. The 1990s renaissance in
rail-based
> mass transit, particularly light rail, was fueled largely by the flexible
> funding climate created by ISTEA and its successor, TEA-21.
>
> What does all this have to do with railway preservation? While highway and
> mass transit interests duke it out for the big multi-million dollar
projects
> funded with ISTEA and TEA-21 money, a relatively little-noticed provision
of
> these laws calls for 10% of the a state's total funding to be allocated to
> "Transportation Enhancements," defined as scenic easements, bicycle and
> pedestrian facilities, transit-related historic preservation, billboard
> control, and stormwater run-off control. Trivial though the enhancements
> program may be in the context of the total surface transportation
> appropriation, it amounts, quietly and without fanfare, to the single
> greatest program of Federal assistance to rail preservation in the history
> of our movement.
>
> Because ISTEA and TEA-21 enhancement programs are chosen competitively on
a
> state-by-state basis, there is no single national record of the number of
> historical rail preservation projects undertaken with funding from this
> source. It's doubtful that anyone in our movement has ever sought to
compile
> national figures on the total number of dollars or projects. Yet all
> anecdotal evidence suggests that the impact is substantial, and that it
> extends far beyond the organized rail preservation community of museums,
> tourist railroads, and NRHS chapters.
>
> For every high-profile grant conferred on a well-known rail preservation
> group (the $300,000 grant received by the Michigan State Trust for Rail
> Preservation for its 2-8-4 Berkshire Pere Marquette 1225 is a good
example),
> ISTEA and TEA-21 have also funded dozens if not hundreds of depot and
> station restoration and adaptive reuse projects. Many of these projects
have
> been undertaken by local historic preservationists and planners with
little
> or no involvement from organized railroad preservationists per se.
>
> It's hard to overemphasize how widespread and diverse the rail
preservation
> activities funded by ISTEA have become, and how far the impact of this
> legislation has extended beyond our community. As a case in point, let me
> offer you the former Pennsylvania Railroad depot in Snow Hill, MD.
Worcester
> County, MD received funding from the ISTEA enhancement program in 1995 to
> renovate the old train station in Snow Hill and to establish a 10-mile
> section of rail trail on a long-disused and lifted PRR branch running
> between Snow Hill and Stockton (independent shortline Maryland and
Delaware
> still offers rail freight service as far as Snow Hill itself). The stucco
> depot now serves as a general community center, with its exterior
preserved
> largely as it was in railroad use, and its interior reconfigured as
meeting
> spaces. To the best of my knowledge, this small project proceeded with out
> anything except the most informal input from local rail historians and
> enthusiasts. And yet, it represents a substantial contribution to saving
the
> physical heritage of railroading in this small Eastern Shore community.
>
> For each project like this, I'm sure dozens of others could be located and
> identified. There are perhaps three conclusions we can draw from this
story
> and others like it. First, ISTEA and its successor TEA-21 have had a
> tremendous impact on making funding available for small to mid-sized rail
> preservation projects. Second, as an organized community, rail
> preservationists have not taken as much advantage of this program as we
can.
> Has your organization ever submitted an ISTEA or TEA-21 application, or
> supplied research support or expert testimony in behalf of one? If not,
get
> involved! Even if your own preservation site cannot easily qualify for
> transportation enhancement funding, you can lend expert advice and counsel
> to other projects in your area which do, and which support the overall
goal
> of rail preservation in your region.
>
> The third point is perhaps the hardest: as a community, we have had
> regrettably little impact on defending these programs and securing their
> future. To explain what I mean, contrast our activities with those of the
> Rails to Trails Movement. Rail preservationists have had an uneasy
> relationship with the trails movement, and our interests are not always
> aligned. Yet this community lobbied actively and effectively to preserve
the
> Transportation Enhancements program when ISTEA was reauthorized as TEA-21
in
> 1998. I know of no corresponding national campaign on the rail
preservation
> side. To the extent that we as preservationists benefit from TEA-21
> enhancement funds, we owe it in no small part to our friends and sometimes
> competitors in the trails movement.
>
> TEA-21 is out there. The money is ours for the earning with good
> proposals-contact your state's Department of Transportation for
applications
> and details. And the money is ours to keep and defend, or ignore and lose,
> when TEA-21 next comes up for reauthorization after Federal fiscal year
> 2003.
>
>
>
>
>

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