The Post is not looking at the past history at all.
Virginia intercity rail services requires no state subsidies because all its trains are extensions off the NEC. A one seat ride off the NEC. Get on the train in Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, or Lynchburg, you can ride that train all the way north to Boston and all the places in between on the NEC without transferring trains. The entire NEC north of Virginia serves a potential 50 million customers who might wish to visit Virginia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis
Within 50 miles of Amtrak train stations in Virginia, there are a potential of 7.5 million customers.
The NEC attracts around 12 million Amtrak passengers per year, but there are only 1.5 million riding Amtrak trains to Virginia.
https://railpassengers.org/site/asse...es/1219/va.pdf
Where else in the USA can 7.5 million Americans from just one state visit 57.5 million other Americans by passenger rail on a one seat ride?
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts do not have to subsidize NEC "only" trains at all, unlike Virginia. Never-the-less, the subsidy Virginia has to pay yearly is almost zero to extend the NEC trains to Virginia.
Maryland has not spent much improving intercity rail services within the state mainly because Amtrak provides it on the NEC without requiring a subsidy, for nothing. Therefore, why Maryland has funds to spend on commuter rail, metro, and light rail instead.
Even though Maryland and Virginia share a major metro area between them, both have their own state governments with their own state constitutions with their own legislatures with their own taxes and their own budget priorities. It is extremely difficult, not impossible, for two states to collaborate funding and operating one transit authority. Shucks, it is hard to find two cities within the same state willing to do that, much less across state lines.
Good luck forming the 51st state for the DC metro area with huge chunks of Maryland and Virginia tossed in as well.
I'm not so sure Maryland and Virginia will be willing to give up territory, and the taxes that goes with it, to a new state.
It is so easy to ignore history altogether and suggest a unified transit authority would be better than having two or more transit agencies providing transit services within their own service areas. Might as well ask States to unify as well, good luck with that!