Virginia Is A Rising Leader In Passenger Rail. Here’s How It Happened

[M II A II R II K]

Virginia Is A Rising Leader In Passenger Rail. Here’s How It Happened


June 15, 2021

By Luz Lazo

Read More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/trans...assenger-rail/

Ask Shannon Valentine how passenger rail rose to the top of Virginia’s transportation priority list and she will take you to the crawling traffic of Interstate 95. Gridlock has plagued the highway for decades, endangering the sanity of commuters while threatening the quality of life and economic growth of the region. The addition of high occupancy toll lanes in the past decade increased capacity, yet traffic jams persist. Valentine, Virginia’s transportation secretary, said widening is no longer an option for the corridor, which she said averages more than 350,000 people daily.

- The quest to get more residents on trains has earned Virginia accolades and a national spotlight, particularly as new transportation priorities in Washington elevate multimodal travel with an eye on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Rail experts say the state is becoming a case study as Amtrak, which operates the passenger rail service, tries to roll out a similar model in other states. In March, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed a $3.7 billion, wide-ranging deal with Amtrak, commuter rail operator Virginia Railway Express and freight railroad CSX, promising to double passenger service in the state within the decade and create a path to separate freight and passenger traffic. --- The investment, the biggest in passenger rail service in the state, follows a decade of state-supported intercity trains connecting Richmond and other cities, such as Roanoke and Norfolk, to Washington and the rest of the Northeast.

- “Virginia is a model for the nation in recognizing the role passenger rail can play in connecting people and communities,” Amtrak chief executive William J. Flynn said at the March signing of the Virginia deal. Under the agreement, Amtrak will contribute nearly $1 billion to the rail program and commit to operate a minimum of 30 years in the state. Virginia’s proximity to Washington, a major Amtrak hub, and to the nation’s busiest passenger rail corridor, the Northeast, is an asset to the state, but the motor for advancing the vision has been the state’s consistent commitment, rail advocates say. --- Virginia’s plan to create a robust network of passenger trains within the decade goes hand-in-hand with Amtrak’s own aspirations to reach more cities and increase train frequencies. Virginia exemplifies Amtrak’s growth strategy of focusing on adding short-haul trips that compete with car rides and flights in urban corridors.

- Rail experts and advocates say the policies and investments of the past decades set a foundation for Northam and his passenger rail program. What sets Virginia apart, they say, is that when it comes to rail, Democrats and Republicans have found common ground. --- “The importance of rail has transcended any partisanship,” said Daniel L. Plaugher, executive director of the nonprofit Virginians for High Speed Rail, which has helped build a growing rail advocacy community in the state. “Whether they’re a Republican from Southwest or a Democrat from Hampton Roads, everybody has wanted to bring better rail service to their communities.” --- Rail has long brought together political rivals in Richmond, said John Watkins, a former Republican state senator and delegate who served more than three decades in the Virginia legislature. A big incentive to act was worsening congestion, he said.

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[Busy Bee]

Virginia and Maryland need to pool their resources and create a single unified passenger rail system linking together both states centered on DC. It could be called Capital Region Transit or something along those lines*, and replace MARC and VRE with a vastly expanded, integrated and modernized system to not just get commuters to DC but to tie together nearly every economic center by fast, frequent rail in both states, stretching from Norfolk in the south to Philadelphia in the north.

*MAVERIC: Maryland and Virginia Electric Railway Inter-City

[Manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Virginia and Maryland need to pool their resources and create a single unified passenger rail system linking together both states centered on DC. It could be called Capital Region Transit or something along those lines*, and replace MARC and VRE with a vastly expanded, integrated and modernized system to not just get commuters to DC but to tie together nearly every economic center by fast, frequent rail in both states, stretching from Norfolk in the south to Philadelphia in the north.

*MAVERIC: Maryland and Virginia Electric Railway Inter-City

That would massively slow down the initiative. Looks can be deceiving but Maryland's Democratic bent hides a slow, gradualism to its government.

Maryland was 65-32% Biden and Virginia was "only" 54-44% Biden, so you'd think Maryland is the more progressive one. Yet it still doesn't have marijuana legalization, the Baltimore problem has been festering for 50 years, and machine politics define everything. Maryland still hasn't been able to - after decades - expand MARC to Newark, Delaware, so it connects with SEPTA in Philadelphia.

Which is why Virginia has done so well. While Maryland was boiled down in minutiae, Virginia was building the Dulles Tech Corridor, turning Tysons into the CBD of the metro area, lobbying for the Silver Line, getting Amazon HQ2.

Honestly, the only advantage Maryland had for so long was MARC. Yet instead of developing the system further, they just let it wallow while Virginia invested in VRE. The last major push on commuter infrastructure was 40 years ago. I even looked hard into moving to Frederick and buying a home there...until I realized the traffic bottlenecks and Maryland's very nonchalant attitude to it. They commissioned a monorail study to Frederick, but that'll take another 10 years probably.

It's amateur hour and I'm glad Virginia isn't waiting for Maryland in developing its system.

[electricron]

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!

[Busy Bee]

Aside from MARC and VRE, technically Metra, NICTD (SSL), Metro Bi-State (StL), MBTA, SEPTA, PATCO, PATH and MTA Metro-North New Haven trains operate services covering two states with stations in both states other than but including terminal stations. Are these single lines in some but not all cases part of a larger system? Yes. But it can be done. Regionalism is the answer. Our state system is a roadblock to cooperation and coordination, but it's not absolute. I'd love to think we will so more of it in our future.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Technically Metra, NICTD (SSL), MBTA, SEPTA, PATCO, PATH and MTA Metro-North New Haven trains operate services covering two states with stations in both states other to but including terminal stations. It can be done.

I did not suggest it was impossible, just very difficult. Try riding a MTA Metro-North trains to Springfield, MA; or MTA Metro-North train to Long Island? Golly, not possible even within the same state, or to a different state.
If unifying all the NEC transit agencies were combined into a single authority, do you think Amtrak would make the greatest choice at providing the local services? Would unifying all of them even be wise?

[Busy Bee]

My original comment was specifically referring to a metropolitan DC-Baltimore unified system with tentacles connecting to most sizable cities in both states along the NEC or not, which I think is a pretty damn good idea.

[Eightball]

Originally Posted by Manitopiaaa

turning Tysons into the CBD of the metro area, lobbying for the Silver Line, getting Amazon HQ2.

LOL f* nah

I will give you VA has been eating MD's lunch but that is bc it is so terribly governed. VA ofc has the built in advantage of having all the defense contractors while MD has life sciences; the investment in defense has been 100x those of life sciences. Still, MD has been terribly governed for decades.

And the Silver Line should've never been built - atrocious ridership and WMATA is a huge mess as is, they can't handle the interlocking etc. It has further destroyed their finances as well!