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Passenger service is a good start
The proposed Piedmont passenger rail service that would make two stops a day in Culpeper is a chance to have a piece of the future now. Therefore it is a proposal that should be made into reality as soon as possible.
The proposal began in Charlottesville with a coalition that wants twice daily passenger service from Lynchburg to Washington’s Union Station. The trains would make scheduled stops in Charlottesville, Culpeper, Manassas and Alexandria.
The coalitions – there is one in Culpeper now – want to partner with Amtrak in this venture that would provide passenger service to Washington in the morning and service from Washington in the evening.
For Culpeper that means commuters would have a way to get to Northern Virginia jobs without dealing with the current highway gridlock. Northern Virginians could take the train to Culpeper, visit the shops and restaurants, spend the night in one of the bed-and-breakfast inns, and take the morning train back to their homes.
Culpeper folk could take the evening train to Charlottesville for a concert or a basketball game, spend the night, and return on the morning train the next day.
It is not a cheap proposition. A train set – locomotive and passenger cars – needs to be purchased. Norfolk Southern owns the railroad on which this train will travel, so there is the annual fee for rail use. That and general maintenance would run in the neighborhood of $1.4 million a year.
There is another proposal to build similar passenger service from Hampton Roads to Washington. That one would stop in Richmond, thus tying together the state’s three main business hubs.
Build that service, too.
Take those steps into a future time when we are not so overwhelmingly dependent on our automobiles.
Both Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads need relief from traffic congestion and gridlock. For years the response has been to build more highways or add lanes to existing ones.
Both areas are virtually begging for the funds to build onto this infrastructure with the hope of moving traffic at a reasonable pace.
Building more is not the answer. No matter how much money is spent, or how detailed the study, these projects are destined to be obsolete before they are completed.
The answer is mass transient, an affordable and dependable service that helps move this daily flow of workers and business people from Point A to Point B and back again.
For Culpeper it could mean a reopening of the housing tracts and open spaces that lured Northern Virginians to the county several years ago. Many have since moved back to Northern Virginia. They did not move because they didn’t like it here. They moved because they couldn’t afford the commute.
This passenger rail service won't free us from our automobile dependence. But it is the kind of cost effective start we need.
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