Staunton, Virginia — Virginia’s Commonwealth Transportation Board voted Tuesday overwhelmingly to overturn a controversial January resolution, restoring the Shenandoah Valley Rail Trail project to state oversight and recommitting to full public input on the future of a 48.5-mile dormant rail corridor.
In a 10-2 decision during its meeting in Staunton, the board rescinded the Jan. 6 action, taken in the waning days of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, that had shifted the initiative and its $35 million in allocated state funding to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority in partnership with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
That earlier move endorsed a more expensive rail-with-trail concept, which would preserve the existing tracks for potential future rail use while constructing a parallel recreational path…