CONCORD - An organization representing truckers has sued the N.H. Dept. of Transportation to prevent any further expenditure of so-called "highway only funds" toward the revitalization of rail service into the state.
The N.H. Motor Transport Association has filed a lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court to stop N.H. DOT from using gasoline and other motor vehicle tax monies in an effort to bring commuter rail service back into Nashua from Lowell.
The claim by the truckers is that Article 6-a of the state constitution prohibits using such funds for anything else but highways. But the problem lies in the definition of what is meant by "for highway purposes."
Recent federal legislation directs highway funds into such projects as congestion mitigation and air quality improvement, seen by past sessions of Congress as also "highway improvements." Whether rail, by reducing traffic volumes and lowering pollution qualifies, has not been challenged recently. On occasion, highway tax funds have been used to construct rail crossing gates, flashing lights or other warning devices, seen as highway improvements. Ironically in many cases the railroad was there before the road was built.
Transportation planners are finding more and more that adding highway travel lanes does not necessarily reduce traffic back-ups, congestion or improve safety. This so-called "magnet effect;" where additional vehicles are attracted to improved roadways, is what rail advocates claim can be ameliorated by moving commuters and other heavy users to other modes -- namely rail -- especially during peak times. This approach is one alternative being looked at in the proposed widening of I-93 along the 18 miles from the Massachusetts state line to Manchester, N.H., at a cost of over $420 million.
N.H. Commissioner of Transportation Carol Murray says she, too, will welcome clarification from the courts on how funds traditionally earmarked only for direct highway purposes can be spent. Her agency lags behind its counterparts in both Maine and Vermont in restoring rail service although this state has acquired some key abandoned rail lines and, in the 1970s, actually took the Concord-Lincoln rail line by eminent domain.
Attempts to broaden the wording of constitutional Article 6-a, going back to 1974, have failed to garner the necessary 60% vote of the N.H. General Court (legislature) each time or the two-thirds required majority of the electorate at the polls. It is expected another bill will be introduced into next year's legislative session on this same subject.
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