By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published Nov. 23, 2009

Transportation Secretary H.B. “Buck” Limehouse said he would support a transfer of railroad functions to his wing as part of a broader goal for the state to construct a more comprehensive transportation plan.

Rep. Nelson Hardwick, R-Surfside Beach, said he plans to introduce a measure that would fold S.C. Public Railways into the Department of Transportation. Public Railways, based in Charleston, is currently under the Department of Commerce.

Limehouse said he agrees with Hardwick’s goal of a streamlining of transportation planning.

“We are supporting it,” Limehouse said last week after the S.C. State Ports Authority’s board meeting.

In a statement, spokeswoman Kara Borie said the Commerce Department believes Public Railways “is exactly where it should be.”

But Borie said Commerce does support the concept that federally mandated rail planning would be best located under the Transportation Department and “to achieve this responsibility, we would fully support efforts to establish a rail planning division within S.C. DOT,” she said.

Hardwick said that he’s open to negotiation on the details and that his aim is to start a conversation about how to appropriately study these transportation issues.

Hardwick argues that South Carolina is losing precious federal transportation dollars because the state lacks commuter rail — or a mature plan for it. He also said that South Carolina needs a better plan for the movement of freight out of the state.

“Everybody is looking for business, and if we can get an agency that understands moving people around, I think, hopefully, we could attract some federal money and have a competitive rail plan,” he said.

Hardwick said it seems disjointed to have one department in charge of roads and another assigned to railroads, because both are related to the movement of freight and people and both are critical to the state’s economic development efforts.

Public Railways — its office is on East Bay Street — has a unique economic development role in the state. It operates three common carrier railroads, two of which provide for switching services that allow CSX and Norfolk Southern access to Port of Charleston terminals.

The agency also operates a short line railroad in Berkeley County that serves BP Chemical and Nucor Steel. Additionally, its staff members serve as experts in negotiation of economic development deals that require rail solutions. It is these functions that Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor wants under his department’s purview, Borie said.

In recent decades, federally mandated railroad planning has also fallen to Public Railways, though that is not a statutory function of the department. The most recent plan that Public Railways published in the spring created a months-long controversy because it suggested construction of a rail yard on the northern end of the former Navy base in North Charleston.

The SPA is building a port terminal on the southern end of the former base, and North Charleston has slated the northern end for a residential and business development. The suggestion of a rail yard irked North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey.

The railroad hubbub has quieted down, but the issue is far from settled.

Limehouse mentioned Hardwick’s bill last week just before a court hearing involving the SPA’s new terminal.

During that hearing, a judge denied an environmental group’s motion to stop construction on the Navy base terminal, with the caveat that he could reconsider at a later date. The S.C. Coastal Conservation League argued that the injunction was necessary to preserve the option for potential rail plans that could mitigate truck traffic on Interstate 26.

The crux of the league’s federal lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers is that the federal agency failed to adequately evaluate environmental and traffic impacts in issuing permits for the terminal.

Declining to comment on the merits of the case, Limehouse said his office is working on several initiatives to more closely align rail and road planning. It was in this context that Limehouse mentioned Hardwick’s measure.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.