Va. Considers Nearly $700 Million Rail And Trail Plan In Shenandoah Valley

By Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

December 15, 2025

The Virginia Department of Transportation stunned Virginia’s transportation community by proposing a plan last Tuesday to potentially develop a multi-use trail and restore a deteriorated rail corridor in the Shenandoah Valley, with a possible price tag of nearly $700 million.

Plans for a recreational trail on the 50-mile Shenandoah rail corridor, backed by the Shenandoah Rail Trail Exploratory Partnership — a coalition of counties, towns, planning bodies and nonprofits — aim to boost the region’s economy and promote healthy lifestyles after 36 years of rail inactivity. The Shenandoah Rail Corridor Coalition also proposed restoring the Manassas Gap rail line and building a parallel trail.

Projections indicate that converting the corridor into a recreational trail would cost $164 million compared to the $687 million to restore the rail line and add an adjacent trail, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).

Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller at Tuesday’s Commonwealth Transportation Board work session, faced questions about the various costs of the project, stated, “I don’t know what to say about all that….”

“The legislature has given us $35 million and said ‘go forth and conquer’ and ‘don’t eliminate our trail with rail from your thought process,’” Miller said.

In 2023, Virginia lawmakers set aside up to $35 million for the Shenandoah Valley Rail Trail. The money was appropriated to buy land and to plan and start building a trail. VDOT was also tasked with thinking about ways to keep trains running in the area. Last Tuesday, the agency proposed advancing the trail concept alongside preservation of the railroad corridor for potential future rail service.

The plan will transfer the project to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, the state agency that manages and expands passenger rail in the commonwealth. The Authority, partnering with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, will execute development. VDOT said that the proposal aligns with the 2021 feasibility study, which identified state agency involvement or a regionally sponsored nonprofit as potential methods for owning and maintaining the rail corridor.

Miller remains skeptical about rail’s economic feasibility. He said that state funds support only trail development, and stressed that future rail options will require additional fundraising. For now, he said, the proposal covers the trail while preserving the possibility of rail if it becomes viable.

Some Commonwealth Transportation Board members, including at-large member Becky Norton Dunlop, expressed general support for preserving both trail and rail options as well as the partnership between the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which has been supportive of a rail with trail.

“I think this is a fabulous idea,” Dunlop said last week. “I love the idea of the rail, the options. Most Civil War organizations have deep pockets. They have lots of access to lots of donors, and I love the idea of the trail.”

Other members questioned costs, foundation selection, and risk management, urging more oversight.

“Secretary, I’ve been in this type of government long enough to know that if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true, and we’d better read that contract,” said Laura Sellers, a board member representing the Fredericksburg District. “I’m not really following what you’re doing here.”

The board did not take a vote during the work session.

Battlefields Foundation proud to be considered

Keven Walker, executive director for the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, did not go into specific details, but did tell the Mercury after the work session the organization has been in touch with the governor’s administration about the project, including after the foundation’s agreement with the rail corridor owner Norfolk Southern Corporation ended after more than a year.

When asked about the foundation’s ability to work on the project, Walker highlighted the group’s long-term involvement and track record in managing similar projects and overseeing millions in state funds. In 1996, Congress created the foundation to preserve the region’s Civil War battlefields and related historic sites around Winchester, Harrisonburg, and Staunton.

Walker said the foundation also included the rail corridor in its 2000 management plan.

“We were set up, now for more than two decades, to be a potential lead managing partner for any massive project regarding this corridor,” Walker said. “I think that’s one reason why we’re being looked at as a potential leader on this issue.”

On the subject of costs, Walker said experts who have worked with the foundation have determined the costs to be much lower than VDOT has estimated. The Shenandoah Rail Corridor Coalition, which represents a group of businesses and organizations including the Foundation, estimates the rail with trails project to cost $142 million.

The foundation was embroiled in a court fight over the issue, after one of its members argued that the organization has “no legal authority” to restore commercial freight service on the rail corridor and that the foundation’s involvement strays far from its mission and threatens its federal tax-exempt status.

In the spring, Walker said the foundation will return to court to prove that it did not act beyond its authority through its involvement with the rail trail project.

“This is a preservation project for us, first and foremost,” Walker said. “This is an economic development project for us, for heritage tourism and the ag industry, and it touches every aspect of who we are as an organization. We are well fitted to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity that we’re honored to have, and we would not be living up to the directives and responsibilities given to us by Congress if we didn’t continue with this project.”

Reaction to proposal

Del. Tony Wilt, R-Harrisonburg, who represents a portion of the area where the corridor sits, responded soon after the proposal became public, arguing that the latest study points to the trail-only option as “a feasible path forward and the one with the broadest community support.”

Wilt, who carried the budget request to study the feasibility and benefits of a rail trail in 2021, also questioned how likely the proposed rail-with-trail project would be, since no credible rail operator has ever been identified or come forward with a serious proposal.

Del. Tony Wilt speaking at a committee meeting on April 8 in Alexandria. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)

Additionally, he pointed out that references to public hearings and opportunities for community input on the third and final assessment report have been removed from VDOT’s website.

“Instead, the secretary’s office presented a new proposal that has not been publicly vetted, is inconsistent with the findings of the latest VDOT study, allows no opportunity for competing proposals, and asks CTB to act within roughly a month without sufficient transparency or public engagement,” Wilt said in a statement.

Wilt said pursuing the rail-with-trail option could derail the whole plan.

“Most concerning is that the proposal seems to require that the existing rail infrastructure remain in place, effectively forcing a rail-with-trail scenario that, as previously outlined based on the study, poses steep hurdles to success. This provision alone may function as a poison pill and could prevent any trail infrastructure from ever being developed.”

The new proposal also prompted the Shenandoah Rail Trail Exploratory Partnership and its members to question the process, costs, and threats to the rail-to-trail project in a letter to the Commonwealth Transportation Board and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. The partnership also claimed the proposal was rushed.

“We don’t want them to just rush and be done with it,” said Kate Wofford, executive director of the Alliance for Shenandoah Valley. “We want them to make a good decision for our communities and the taxpayer dollars in the future.”

Don Hindman, project director for the Shenandoah Rail Trail Exploratory Partnership, said he was optimistic the cost outlined in the third report would encourage the state to move forward with the rail-to-trail option, arguing that it would provide “the most economic and health benefits to the highest number of Virginians for the least capital investment in the shortest time.”

It is unclear if the board members received copies of the third assessment report on Tuesday, which was not included in the agenda. One member requested a copy of the report and was told it had been released publicly in November and that a copy could be provided.

What’s next?

VPRA’s Board of Directors is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday to authorize Executive Director DJ Stadtler to revise the authority’s budget to accept the funds from the CTB and provide funding for the proposed plan. If successful, the CTB will meet in January to transfer the funds to the VPRA.

Wilt asked the VPRA board to delay any action.

“The best path forward in the immediate (future) is for VDOT to complete the public hearings promised as part of the study,” he said. “After the conclusion of that process, if the consensus is for an entity other than the commonwealth to take over the project and manage or own the corridor, then a competitive RFP style process should be undertaken so all qualified organizations may submit proposals. CTB could then select the option that is most viable and most likely to succeed.”

This story was originally published by the Virginia Mercury. For more stories from the Virginia Mercury, visit VirginiaMercury.com.