A study on where to build a new railroad station in the South Chesterfield area has ended for the time being with no conclusion.
The Tri-Cities Metropolitan Planning Organization received word from Federal Railroad Administration official Marlys Osterhues in an April 4 letter that the study begun in 2014 had been discontinued.
Last June, David Hyder, transportation director for the Crater Planning District Commission, said that a Finding of No Significant Impact should be complete by sometime in July 2018. That finding was to come on the heels of the completed environmental assessment, he said.
Last week, Hyder said the FONSI was never officially completed due to lack of a signature by an FRA staff member.
The 17-page draft FONSI was written to support a site on the Boulevard in Colonial Heights, Hyder said. The study also considered a new passenger station at Collier Yard in Petersburg and the current station in Ettrick, among others.
The FRA has apparently not given up, however. “We have not abandoned plans to evaluate the feasibility of building a new station. We will continue to discuss the next steps with the Tri-Cities MPO,” an FRA spokesman said in an email.
Hyder has said that replacing the passenger station in Ettrick is part of the TCMPO’s long range 2040 transportation plan.
