(The following article by Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on October 17.)
RICHMOND, Va. — Meredith Richards is used to long train rides.
Growing up in Houston in the 1960s, she had a long way to go to attend college in Colorado — a 33-hour trip by rail. She ate hardboiled-egg sandwiches along the way.
“I couldn’t afford to fly,” she said. Sitting at an outdoor café on Charlottesville’s Main Street, she pointed out nearby Union Station to explain her continuing interest in railroads.
“I first discovered how limited rail service was here when my son was in art school in New York.” Her son would take Amtrak from New York to Washington. But “getting him from D.C. to Charlottesville was always hard.”
Last year, she founded Charlottesville Citizens for Better Rail Alternatives to push for new and improved rail service from Charlottesville to Washington. The former vice mayor of Charlottesville said she is seeking convenient, reliable and affordable service to the home of the University of Virginia.
How affordable? “A $50 ride would be about right,” she said.
Amtrak runs one train a day between Washington and Charlottesville, with a second train three days a week. Reservations are hard to get and, Richards said, trains often run late. Even so, she recently told the governor’s Rail Advisory Board, Amtrak turns away about 100 people a day for lack of seats.
A preliminary study by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce found a growing number of businesspeople regularly travel to Washington and Northern Virginia. Of 231 members who responded to the online poll, about two-thirds said they would ride a commuter train if it were reliable.
“U.Va. enrolls thousands of Northern Virginia students and plays host to tens of thousands of Northern Virginia parents and alums,” she told the board.
With an increasing number of federal workers in Albemarle County and 500,000 or more tourists flocking to Monticello and other local attractions each year, Richards said it makes sense to explore rail alternatives.
“Altogether, we are talking about millions of trips by car in the Charlottesville-D.C. corridor,” she said. “How many of these drivers would choose the rail option if it were convenient, affordable and reliable?”
Good question, but given the pothole-filled politics surrounding transportation funding, it’s not one she expects to get answered soon.
Richards has gotten attention from one key player — Virginia Railway Express, Northern Virginia’s publicly owned commuter railroad.
“I like the enthusiasm she brings looking at new options and alternatives,” said Mark Roeber, VRE’s spokesman.
Roeber said he has visited Charlottesville to gauge local interest. “It all comes down to having some sustainable data to see if the service would work and being able to pay for it,” he said.
Richards’ group, or another Charlottesville-based coalition, needs to raise up to $500,000 to conduct the kind of study needed to justify future discussions, he said.
After that, VRE — which is governed by such Northern Virginia counties as Fairfax and Prince William — could explore other ticklish issues, such as where Charlottesville trains would stop along the way.
It also would require a commitment from Norfolk Southern, which owns the tracks used by the commuter rail in the Manassas to Washington corridor.
A 2005 report to the General Assembly said the project would require about $2 million in capital investments, primarily for stations, platforms and a storage facility in Charlottesville. It would take an additional $1 million per year to operate.
Roeber gave a cautious assessment of the chances of Richards’ vision coming to pass, since so many pieces of the puzzle must fall into place.
Still, Roeber said, “it is something that we personally think in time will happen and hope to be a part of.”
Richards seems like the right person to keep the idea on track.
“She’s a very bright woman who’s passionate about transportation,” said Linda McMinimy, executive director of the Virginia Transit Association. Richards has been president of the state transit group.
“She’s someone who really has a grip on transportation and is very energetic and enthusiastic,” McMinimy said. “She’s a really quick study.”
Richards appears regularly on Charlottesville radio and maintains a busy speaking schedule, including talks at senior centers.
“They’re extremely enthusiastic” about the concept, she said of older travelers. “They don’t want to drive.”
Her training as a psychologist helps her understand the public’s often-contradictory behaviors about using public transportation.
“One of the first things I learned in a social psychology class was that behavior does not predictably follow attitudes,” she said.
In other words, people may say they would take the train but, until it’s an easy way to ride, they’ll probably keep driving.
Richards thinks it will probably take a convergence of high fuel prices and choked traffic to change the status quo.
If that day comes, she’ll be waiting at the station.