Independent Senate candidate Gail “For Rail” Parker’s got a steady platform to build rail across Virginia, which she says will reduce emissions, save lives and even fix Iraq (less oil, more peace in the Middle East). Recently, C-VILLE tread the shaky ground on and off the platform of this third-party candidate.—Meg McEvoy
C-VILLE: How much would it cost to build the kind of rail service you’re talking about?
Gail Parker: By our estimate, it’s $10 million a mile for light rail and $20 million for heavy rail. We have a 500-mile rail plan to put high-speed passenger rail service across Virginia, from the Washington D.C. area through Richmond to Virginia Beach, and from Richmond to Roanoke. Our goal is to take about 20-25 percent of the traffic off the major arteries.
Your opponents are talking about things like the war on terror and the war in Iraq—where do you stand on those issues?
If you really look at our platform it’s a positive solution on the mess over in the Middle East. By building rail, we lessen our dependency on foreign oil, and thereby reduce our vital interest in that area.
How long will it take?
James C. Jordan says that we could cut our dependency on foreign oil in half by building rail. How fast we build it, that’s how fast we cut our dependency.
How would you vote on a national fence system at our southern borders, and how would you vote on a national gay marriage amendment?
I’m for marriage and marriage has got to be between a man and a woman. On immigration, we believe that we will need legal immigrant labor to build the rail system in Virginia. We just simply do not have enough workers to build a rail system that we need.
Where do you stand on the PATRIOT Act?
Well, clearly the surveillance has gone too far. But I don’t want to get too far afield from our basic campaign issue. This campaign is about rail and about balancing the federal budget. That’s my promise to the voters of Virginia. The first thing I will do is introduce legislation requiring that the federal budget be balanced. We can build rail with the savings from just cutting out the waste.