33.1-221.1:1 - Fund for construction of industrial access railroad tracks
§ 33.1-221.1:1. Fund for construction of industrial access railroad tracks.
A. The General Assembly declares it to be in the public interest that accessrailroad tracks and facilities be constructed to certain industrialcommercial sites where rail freight service is or may be needed by new orsubstantially expanded industry and that financial assistance be provided toareas seeking to furnish rail freight trackage between the normal limits ofexisting or proposed common carrier railroad tracks and facilities and theactual site of existing or proposed commercial or industrial buildings orfacilities. This section is enacted in furtherance of these purposes and isintended to be comparable to the Industrial Access Roads Fund, establishedpursuant to § 33.1-221.
B. The funding for this program shall be set forth in the Appropriations Act.
C. The Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation shalladminister and expend or commit, subject to the approval of the CommonwealthTransportation Board, such funds for constructing, reconstructing, orimproving industrial access railroad tracks and related facilities. TheDirector of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation may consult withthe Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Chief ExecutiveOfficer of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, or their designatedrepresentatives, concerning applications for funds. Funds shall be spentdirectly by the Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportationor by reimbursement of the local entities, private or public.
D. Funds may be used to construct, reconstruct, or improve part or all of thenecessary tracks and related facilities on public or private propertycurrently used or being developed, existent or prospective, for singleindustries or industrial subdivisions under firm contract or alreadyconstructed, including those subdivisions owned or promoted by railroadcompanies and others. Applications for funds must be approved by the localgoverning body.
E. In deciding whether to construct any such access track, the CommonwealthTransportation Board shall consider the cost thereof in relation toprospective volume of rail traffic, capital investment, potential employment,and other economic and public benefits. The Commonwealth Transportation Boardshall adopt procedures to encourage widespread use of the funds, shall limitallocation of funds so that no county, city or town receives more thantwenty-five percent of the funds in any one fiscal year unless there are notsufficient applications prior to May 1 of each year to use the availablefunds, and shall consider the practices of the Department of Transportationin distributing industrial access road funds under § 33.1-221.
F. Tracks and facilities constructed with such funds shall be the property ofthe Commonwealth for the useful life of the project as determined by theDirector of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation and shall bemade available for use by all common carriers using the railway system towhich they connect. The landowners or using businesses shall, prior to thecommitment of funds by the Director of the Department of Rail and PublicTransportation, be contractually committed to the perpetual maintenance ofsuch tracks and facilities so constructed and to the payment of any costsrelated to the future relocation or removal of such tracks and facilities.
(1987, c. 495; 1992, c. 167; 1996, cc. 590, 598; 2010, c. 869.)