Draft Richmond to D.C. rail study out, but controversy remains on route near Ashland

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5. Social media uproar over rail project spills into Hanover supervisors meeting

Social media uproar over rail project spills into Hanover supervisors meeting

By MICHAEL O’CONNOR Richmond Times-Dispatch 12 hrs ago



An Amtrak train passes through Ashland, Virginia, Feb. 7, 2016. A plan for a high-speed rail between Richmond and Washington, D.C. has ruffled some feathers among Ashland residents since one idea is to run a third rail directly down Railroad Avenue along the two existing rails.

P. KEVIN MORLEY/TIMES-DISPATCH/

Citing the very strange state of a world that requires people to keep an eye on social media, a Hanover County supervisor sought Wednesday to quell some of the uproar related to talks surrounding a federal rail project.

“My phone has blown up,” Faye Prichard, the Ashland District supervisor, said at Tuesday night’s board meeting. Prichard went on to try to clarify the county’s position on the federal rail project, DC2RVA.

Prichard said she has fielded numerous concerns from people confused by reports that Aubrey M. “Bucky” Stanley of the Beaverdam District presented the Commonwealth Transportation Board with a county resolution that opposed a western bypass alternative for DC2RVA.

“People who heard that and didn’t really understand believed that the county had come out with a new resolution asking to take the western bypass off,” Prichard said. ... In November, the board passed a resolution calling on the Federal Railroad Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to abandon consideration of any western bypass and a third rail in Ashland.