VRE says $2 Billion Needed to add Southbound Service

Backshophoss wrote:CalTrain still lives,was the former SP commuter operation,4th & Townsend to San Jose,was under CaDOT,now under
the control of a"Joint Powers Board"(JPBX),of all the cities and Counties surrounding SFO.

There was another 'CalTrain' in 1982-1983 that ran two weekday round trips from Oxnard to LA Union Terminal. It was a Jerry Brown test project, and it was set into motion by having the California PUblic Utilities Commission order SP to operate the train. It died after Brown was succeeded by George Deukmajian, and as disputes between SP and the State of compensation dragged on

Doesn't VRE need CSX's blessing to run south to Richmond?

Yes, VRE or the state would need to purchase operating slots from CSX. But the way VRE is structured, it will not carry passengers to counties or cities that do not directly sponsor the service. That is why for the past 23 years VRE trains have run empty for approximately 5 miles between Fredericksburg and the layover yard at Crossroads Industrial Park in Spotsylvania: until a few years ago, Spotsylvania County did not fund VRE. Now it does, and a station at the layover yard is under construction.

Are there even 2 billion dollars worth of passengers that would utilize this service? This sounds like something mass transit activists want that would accomplish very little. The notion that people would want to live in DC and commute like that out to PWC seems silly to me too.

We are talking DC area commuters - and we all know those that work in DC are crazy,

On the Fredericksburg line, I think the Ft. Belvoir (VRE's Lorton) and Quantico have been cited as places the Gov't would like to put more offices at. If you picture joint ops with MARC, I could easily see through-running (From Maryland) on VRE having fairly dense all-day, both-way demand at L'Enfant, Crystal City, (infill "National Airport" station), Alexandria, Franconia, Ft Belvoir, Woodbridge (TOD), Quantico-Lorton, & maybe short turn at Quantico or express-run to Fredericksburg.

For the Manassas Line, yeah, actual reverse patrons are hard to imagine. But maybe if you build it. Fairfax would have a reason to start doing TOD at places like Burke Center and Manassas, or an infill-and-TOD where the train meets the Fairfax County Parkway?

But if you're *Virginia*, you're also going to be thinking about more Amtrak service to Charlottesville (via Manassas) and Richdmond/Tidewater. All the switch/signal/stations could get decent additional use at the joint stations.

In my experience, if there was a massive increase in jobs out in PWC, people would go live out there. Where you buy a home for a reasonable price and provide your children a good education. Not live in this dump and take a train out to the sticks every day. People commute by train because there is too much a traffic and limited expensive parking in DC. If someone lived in DC and worked in PWC, that is counterflow so no traffic. And new businesses in PWC have unlimited on site free parking. Taking a train would be silly. It would be cheaper and faster to drive.

I would see this as an incredible waste of money just to make some transit activists feel good.

A National Airport station isn't necessary. I can walk from Crystal City VRE to the airport terminal in 10 minutes. (An airport station wouldn't be much closer.) There's a trail at the other end of the water park from the VRE Crystal City station, and that takes you halfway to the airport. You have to cut across a couple of parking lots and a ramp, but I've done it quite a few times. All it needs is some better pedestrian right-of-way. The water park earlier this year had a banner asking people to submit comments about walking to the airport from there.