(The following editorial appeared on The News & Advance website on June 2.)
LYNCHBURG, Va. — With the cost of gasoline reaching levels that few thought possible, the demand for mass transit is growing along with those frightful prices. Expanded passenger rail service for the region could be part of the new mass transit system if the state can find the money.
City Council has joined a growing list of communities along the U.S. 29 corridor that see the benefits of having Amtrak service expanded from one to two trains daily. The council unanimously approved a resolution last week urging the state to support a new passenger train that would begin in Lynchburg and travel to Washington daily.
The new line, which would travel on Norfolk Southern tracks, was first proposed by Amtrak. It has since been endorsed by a dozen communities, with more expected.
Vice Mayor Bert Dodson is enthusiastic about the prospect of getting the expanded rail service. “We have a real jewel as far as transit goes,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for Lynchburg to really shine.”
Amtrak currently operates a train that runs through Lynchburg and neighboring communities once a day as it travels from New York to New Orleans. But that train is often full and has a sketchy record of being on time.
The Amtrak study identified the entire U.S. 29 corridor as an underserved area and recommended that the new train be put in place as soon as possible.
The plan hinges on state funding with a subsidy of $1.9 million that has been requested. It will take some lobbying to get that money from the state, said Meredith Richards, a representative of the Piedmont Rail Coalition. “We all know how things go in Richmond,” she told the council members.
The rail coalition includes regional governments, business interests and other organizations that have been laying the ground work for the expanded rail service.
Explaining the need for the new train, which would be housed in Lynchburg overnight, Richards said, “Not only are (the current trains) often late, they’re typically full and very difficult to get a seat on. What this tells us is we have a high ridership community, but we don’t have the service.”
Dodson has said that one good reason for the second daily train is it could allow people who work in Northern Virginia and Washington to live in smaller cities along the U.S. 29 corridor and commute by train a couple of days a week while working from home on other days.
Amtrak predicts the new train would have 33,000 riders the first year.
The $1.9 million subsidy from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation would be a sound investment in mass transit for Central Virginia and other localities along the U.S. 29 corridor.
In the long run, more mass transit will reduce the demand for gas — and the foreign oil from which it is refined. And when that happens, gasoline prices will drop. The state subsidy for expanded rail passenger service could be a small step in that direction.
The region’s representatives in the House of Delegates and state Senate should use their influence in an effort to secure that subsidy and get the rail service going.