Two Va. Corridors Vie For More Train Service

An Amtrak proposal to add a single train from either Lynchburg or Newport News to Union Station has spurred a competition between the two slices of Virginia and pointed to severe limits on state and federal transportation funding.

State officials had asked Amtrak for ideas on the best ways to increase passenger rail in Virginia within a few years. Amtrak officials surveyed possibilities across the state and ended up with the two round-trip routes, each of which would need to be subsidized by the state.

This week, proponents of the Lynchburg option gathered in Culpeper, one of the stops, to press their campaign for the increased service. Charlottesville, Manassas and Alexandria are also on the route.

"There are major universities on this corridor, and a tremendous amount of population and commercial growth that's taken place," said Meredith Richards, a former member of the Charlottesville City Council who heads the Piedmont Rail Coalition, an advocacy group. "They have only one train a day in each direction that serves those communities on a seven-days-a-week basis. . . . It's not easy to get on these trains," she said.

But Newport News Mayor Joe S. Frank said yesterday that his region, which has more service but also more people, is also hungry for the added capacity.

"We have 1.6 million people here in the metro area, lots of military folks that need to be up at the Pentagon and go to D.C. on a regular basis, lots of business people, as well as tourists," Frank said. "We think we're under-served."

The route includes stops in Williamsburg and Richmond.

The debate comes as the effort to stretch Metrorail in the Washington region from Falls Church to Dulles International Airport remains stalled, according to Fairfax County Supervisor Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock). But she noted that Metro and the state's passenger and freight rail systems are managed separately. She is on a state advisory board on passenger and freight rail.

"What we're trying to accomplish is looking at your heavy rail, looking at your freight railroads and looking for opportunities we've never examined before for resolving congestion and improving the environment," Bulova said.

The Newport News route would require $1.7 million a year in operating subsidies, while Lynchburg would cost $1.9 million a year, but state rail officials said the start-up costs could be higher for Newport News.

The modest proposal for more service to Newport News or Lynchburg awaits state decisions on funding. The added train to Newport News would increase passengers by 50,500 annually, or 139 per day. Lynchburg ridership would increase 33,100 annually, or 91 a day, according to rail officials.

Transportation dollars have been squeezed in the state because of the economic downturn and a Supreme Court ruling junking a transportation funding plan.

In 2005, Virginia started setting aside money for passenger and freight rail across the state. The funds come from a tax on car rentals that generates about $23 million a year for rail, according to Jennifer Pickett, chief of staff of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

But Pickett noted that those funds do not meet state needs.

"The needs for rail in Virginia are in the billions. We have a modest source of funding," she said.

Officials have, for instance, studied adding a third rail line from Richmond to the District along the Interstate 95 corridor, which itself would cost a billion dollars. A major project to reduce truck traffic on Interstate 81 would be comparable, she said.

This summer, the state plans to release a wide-ranging plan for rail improvements through 2035. Among the big ideas that could be covered, advocates said, is an ambitious plan for a high-speed train from Washington to Charlotte, and eventually to Florida, though funding for such a vast effort has yet to be found.