Friday, October 02, 2009
Editorial: We think it can, we think it can
A lot of hope is riding on Lynchburg's train.
From the RoundTable blog
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The high school band played. The crowd cheered. State politicians and other dignitaries were on hand for the inaugural run.
The governor was even aboard Wednesday evening for the arrival in Lynchburg of the state's pilot passenger rail service between that city and Washington, and points north.
The venture is, as Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer put it, "very big."
For the first time, Virginia is funding intercity passenger rail service, a three-year project that will gauge ridership demand to D.C. and beyond from Lynchburg and Richmond, a second new train that is to start running in mid-December.
Now people will have to ride the rails if they want to keep the service.
Transportation officials project 51,000 passengers a year on the Lynchburg route. The fare ranges from $38 to $74, one-way.
Amtrak's schedule has proved less than ideal for commuters -- departure from Lynchburg at 7:38 a.m., arrival at Washington's Union Station at 11:20 a.m., with stops in Charlottesville, Culpeper, Manassas, Burke Centre and Alexandria along the way. Still, state officials are optimistic.
The train goes on to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, popular travel destinations all.
Attracting enough riders is only Virginia's first hurdle, though. Success will mean finding $5 million to $7 million a year in state funding to keep the service going -- money Virginia doesn't have just now. Transportation Secretary Homer is confident on that point, saying if the ridership materializes, the General Assembly will see that the funding does, too.
We hope so.
If passenger rail succeeds in Lynchburg, the state shouldn't stop there, but press on to Roanoke, then Bristol and, eventually, with the help of other states, beyond.
