RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A new lawsuit could make it harder for Virginians to get access to broadband internet.
In this year’s General Assembly Session, lawmakers passed a bill making it easier for broadband service providers to cross railroad tracks.
Senate Bill 1029 says: “If a broadband service provider deems it necessary in the construction of its systems to cross the works of a railroad company, including its tracks, bridges, facilities and all railroad company rights of way or easements, then the broadband service provider shall submit an application for such crossing to the railroad company.”
This law will make it easier for broadband service providers to install underground cabling under existing railroads.
“Most of the cabling, it’s fiber optic cabling and it’s run underground,” Delegate Rodney Willett (D-73) said. “You are running in as straight a line as you can, you get to a railroad crossing, you need to go under the crossing as any utility would need to do.”
The law also gives the railroad company 35 days to approve the application. According to Willett, this will speed up the broadband installation process.
“These crossings in terms of negotiating how that is to be done, what the compensation is going to be, in some cases is taking a year or longer. And that is just too long in this context when we are trying to get broadband out in months, not years,” Willett said.
But not everyone is happy with the newest law.
The law requires broadband providers to pay a fee of $2,000 per crossing. However, in a newly filed lawsuit, the Association of American Railroads alleges that $2,000 is not equivalent to market value and therefore it violates the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which says, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
In addition, the Association of American Railroads says the new law violated the Virginia Constitution, which says, “that the General Assembly shall pass no law whereby private property, the right to which is fundamental, shall be damaged or taken except for public use.”
The law does allow railroad companies to petition the State Corporation Commission if they feel that the $2,000 application fee is not adequate, the crossing will cause undue hardship on the rail company or the crossing prevents safety concerns.
8News reached out to the Association of American Railroads for comment on this story. The association responded, “The filing speaks for itself.”
