afiggatt wrote:... Governor McDonnell's proposal ... called for around $50 million a year
in addition capital spending on passenger rail project as shown here.
... $102 million for Roanoke service extension to be spent by FY2017,
$79 million for Norfolk service,
and starting in FY2016, $35 million for [Newport News] service upgrades,
$47 million for DC to Richmond upgrades.
These funds are in ADDITION to the amounts that Virginia has already allocated
in the current Six year plan.
... the odds of service to Roanoke by 2016 or 2017 and capacity upgrades for CSX
to allow for 3 daily trains to NFK in 3-4 years are now very good.
As for the route through Main Street Station ... $439 million spread over 5-6 years
is manageable. Once ... other ... projects are done, VA may have $50 to $75 million
a year to spend on ... Main Street projects. Do the upgrades in pieces ... starting
with the slow Staples Mill to Main Street segment to speed up the NPN trains ...
after a few additional years, restore service to Main Street for the Norfolk and, yes,
the Silvers, the Carolinian, Palmetto trains.
The process could get sped up if there are federal grant programs for passenger rail to tap.
Thanks for this assessment. Spending megabillions on a megaproject
for the future, like California's HSR, always captures the media and
public attention. In the real world, $102 million to Roanoke, another
$79 million to Norfolk, $47 million D.C. to Richmond, hey, pretty soon
you've got something good in the here-and-now.
Nothing succeeds like success. As the network expands across the state,
it should pick up even more supporters in the legislature. The Lynchburger
was launched with a state guarantee, a potential subsidy cost in the budget.
Well, no subsidy required, so that freed up the allotted funds to backstop
the launch of the Norfolk train. The better that new service performs,
the quicker the "potential subsidy" can be reallocated to start additional
Norfolk trains and to extend service to Roanoke.
We could soon be seeing plans to extend that route down to Bristol. From
there it would threaten Knoxville and even Chattanooga with Thruway
connector buses -- and eventually with their own train service again!
Wonder why nobody seems to be talking about extending the Lynchburger,
or another run on this route, down to Danbury, Greensboro, and Charlotte?
The stretch Greensboro-Charlotte is getting doubletracked to cut a good
chunk, 15 or is it 30 minutes?, out of the schedule. Maybe North Carolina
doesn't want to compete with its own Carolinian. But it sure seems like
a morning departure out of Charlotte would pick up a lot of riders heading
to Danbury, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, and points north.
Meanwhile, when deciding which applications for funds are most deserving,
the feds want to look at calculations like, "The corridor is served by two trains
carrying a total of 500 passengers daily. The proposed upgrades will speed
their rides by 5 minutes each way, saving 2,500 minutes per trip, or 1,500,000
hours a year. Assuming a modest value for their time of $10 per hour, the faster
service will save these travelers more than $15 million a year." That calculation
gets much, much better when we can add a couple more trains, say to Norfolk,
to carry another 1,000 pax per day. That makes the value of saving 5 minutes
more like $45 million a year.
Fixing Main Street-Petersburg is costly, but the really big bucks will be needed
Richmond-D.C., including the new Potomac bridge. Growing passengers totals
build the political and the economic case for more trains, making it easier to
justify each additional investment to upgrade tracks, speed trains, and add
frequencies.
These successes are building a compelling case for more investment in more
trains and faster tracks all across Virginia -- and even deeper into the South.