The Virginian-Pilot
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Virginia will not lose the bulk of its Amtrak trains because of federal budget cuts as was feared.
The new federal appropriations act restores the money the House originally eliminated for regional train service. Under the proposal, Virginia would have immediately lost 64 percent of its Amtrak trains, including Newport News service and the anticipated Norfolk service that's to start in less than two years.
State rail advocates, including Virginians for High Speed Rail and the Piedmont Rail Coalition, mounted letter-writing campaigns to congressional members to save the services. The highly successful Lynchburg-to-Washington train would have been cut as well.
Congress, instead, eliminated funding through September for high-speed rail. States can still apply for money for high-speed rail through other funding programs but must compete with roads and transit for that money.
"Overall, this is really good news," said Daniel Plaugher, executive director of Virginians for High Speed Rail.
High-speed rail grants already announced, including Virginia's $119 million for federally mandated studies and track improvements, are not affected.
And because the state is in the midst of this work, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation was not looking for additional money now, said department spokeswoman Kim Kovac.
"The impact on Virginia is minimal," Plaugher said.
While this year's Amtrak funding was spared, a law passed in 2008 would end federal support of regional passenger rail in 2013 anyway, and Virginia has been working with Amtrak on a payment structure and with state legislators to identify funding.
The General Assembly this year created a vehicle to pay for passenger rail, the Intercity Passenger Rail Operating and Capital Fund, but did not fund it.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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A real help would be to get the rail roads to help
As it is now the rail roads are a big impediment to passenger rail traffic. It's sorta "it my rails and I dont want you on them." I suggest that if the rail roads dont want passenger on "their" rails, rail the passengers helped pay for, that all tax payer subsidies to "freight only" rail lines be stopped and that money go towards passenger rail transportation systems. If the railroads dont want to play nice, the taxpayers should take thier money and go home.
just wondering how will this impacts the future of the tide
in the near future if light rail funds have been curtailed for communter train services?
I see a wonderful partnership between the Tide and train service. If the choo choo is not going to move forward because of funds, it seems in the near term the choo choo is on its own with no growth potential. In the time it takes the National govt to restart supporting light rail projects, will the choo choo have simply died?
Maybe in this time, those who really see a value with LR in HR will get togather and make some plans as to where the thing should go from which to garnish Fed funds. It might have to be done on the privite dime, but that plan would be a better proposal then what is out there now. It might also have public support.
All forms of passenger rail are a certainty
The market demand for increased passenger rail service is driven by dimishing global supplies of easily extractable fossil fuels. Passenger rail travel is inherently more fuel efficient per passenger-mile than either short-hop airline or highway travel. Partisan political rhetoric cannot alter or avoid that long-term economic fact.
Whether it's regional high-speed rail or local light rail, these systems will become a vital part of our future transportation infrastructure. And it really doesn't matter if the investment is public or private. Either way, it'll still cost the same and we'll all pay for it one way or another. But then, we'll all benefit from it as well. So we might as well quit bickering about it and get it built.