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2005 SESSION

056879788
SENATE BILL NO. 778
Offered January 12, 2005
Prefiled January 6, 2005
A BILL to establish the Interstate Route 81 Corridor Multistate Transportation Planning Compact.
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Patrons-- Potts, Bell, Edwards, Hanger, Obenshain, Puckett, Reynolds and Wampler; Delegates: Carrico, Keister, Louderback and Weatherholtz
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Referred to Committee on Transportation
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  § 1. Short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the Interstate Route 81 Corridor Multistate Transportation Planning Compact.

§ 2. Compact established.

Pursuant to the invitation in 49 USC § 24101 Interstate Compacts, in which the United States Congress grants consent to states with an interest in a specific form, route, or corridor of intercity passenger rail service (including high-speed rail service) to enter into interstate compacts, there is hereby established the Interstate Route 81 Corridor Multistate Transportation Planning Compact.

§ 3. The Commonwealth of Virginia and the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana agree, upon adoption of this compact:

1. To study, develop, and promote a plan for the design, construction, financing, and operation of optimal freight and passenger transportation facilities in the Interstate Route 81 corridor, a national and international transportation corridor, through and between points in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the several aforementioned states that enact this compact by July 1, 2005;

2. To coordinate efforts to establish the least costly and most efficient combination of transportation infrastructure development including highway expansion, higher-speed rail service, coordinated user regulations and enforcement proposals at the federal, state, and local governmental levels;

3. To coordinate and require joint planning by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the departments of transportation of the aforementioned compact states; and

4. To seek and provide funding and resources for innovative and appropriate passenger and freight transportation improvement concepts, including improved infrastructure, user regulation and enforcement options, which most effectively meet the purpose and need of the corridor for safe, efficient, least costly, and least environmentally damaging approach.

§ 4. Commission established; appointment and terms of members; chairman; reports; Commission funds; staff.

The Interstate Route 81 Corridor Multistate Transportation Planning Compact Commission is hereby established as a regional instrumentality and a common agency of each signatory party, empowered in a manner hereinafter set forth to carry out the purposes of the Compact.

The members of the Commission shall be appointed as follows: the Commissioner of Transportation of each state, one member from the Interstate Route 81 corridor area chosen by each state's transportation board and one member appointed by the leader of each legislative house.

The chairman of the Commission shall be chosen by the members of the Commission from among its membership for a term of one year, and shall alternate between the member states.

The Commission shall meet at least four times each year at mutually agreed locations, and shall issue a report of its activities each year.