Several appointments were made this past week to the body that will own the future station used for the return of passenger rail to the New River Valley.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors agreed to appoint Chairwoman Sherri Blevins and County Administrator Craig Meadows to the New River Valley Passenger Rail Station Authority.
The following day, the Christiansburg Town Council unanimously approved the appointments of Mayor Mike Barber and Town Manager Randy Wingfield as that locality’s two authority representatives.
The town council’s agenda document on the authority appointment noted that Barber and Wingfield have been the representatives on the New River Valley Passenger Rail Committee.
“You’ve been representing us … since it started, so I don’t see a reason to not have you and Randy as” the two representatives, Councilman Tim Wilson said.
The recent appointments mark the latest small steps in the ongoing work to return passenger rail to the New River Valley, a plan that is part of a more than $250 million project state officials announced last year.
Each of the authority’s governmental members will share in the cost of operating the station. A Montgomery County official previously said another purpose of the authority will be to acquire property for the future station.
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority’s activities since last year’s announcement have included survey work, forums on the project and a narrowing down of the potential station sites to two locations at the Uptown Christiansburg mall.
A spokeswoman with the VPRA said some weeks ago that the next phase of work involves environmental reviews, where they’ll evaluate the area and the potential impact of expanded service.
Estimates previously provided by state officials set the expected costs of the mall west and north sites at, respectively, $56 million and $52 million.
Kevin Byrd, executive director of the New River Valley Regional Commission, provided a list of the entities that have agreed to be members of the rail station authority, which he said is based on measures that have been passed to date.
The members will be: Montgomery, Pulaski and Giles counties, Radford, the towns of Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Pulaski, Radford University and Virginia Tech.
The NRVRC has long been actively involved in the passenger rail initiative, including studying recommended station locations and previously providing some early estimates on station operational and construction costs.
The first meeting of the New River Valley rail station authority is slated for Sept. 28, according to Christiansburg Town Council documents.
