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Virginia governor signs historic state transportation bill
Meanwhile the state’s mostly 1930’s vintage highway system continues to crumble due to minimal maintenance and old age, like all east coast states, as the number of trucks moving containers from the ports and rail yards increase. Last time I checked, railroads no longer go to warehouses and distribution centers. If there is track in place, it was disconnected from the main line, paved over, and placed out of service decades ago while the docks were converted to container and trailer use.
Virginia Museum of Transportation listed at goodsearch.com .
@ Guse: Maybe the federal government should be taking alot more from your paycheck, and Schneider’s profits to pay for the repairs and replacement of Virginia’s 1930’s vintage highway system.
In defense of my neighbors from Virginia, we out-of-state folks shouldn’t be quick to criticize how they plan to spend their state’s tax dollars. It’s their money. Rather let us watch and learn from Virginia’s experence. After all, it is one of 50 “test beds” for experimentation in our republic.
Mr. Guse, I refer you to TransportationNation, an excellent site run by NPR station WNYC. You will find a number of articles citing road improvements/projects either underway or proposed in Virginia. In fact, I would say that in funding and scope the road projects dwarf the passenger rail plans of VDRPT.
But compare what “red” state Virginia is doing for intercity passenger rail to “blue” state Massachusetts. The recent transportation bill introduced by Governor Deval Patrick, which contains some ambitious and long-needed commuter and intercity rail projects, is meeting stiff opposition in the Democratic Party-controlled legislature.
Virginia is becoming a model for how states that want “balance” in their transportation systems and want to do something other than just build more roads or widen existing roads (VA wants to do that too) can provide for their own intercity rail needs.
Up here in Massachusetts, the idea of building a cross-state service linking Boston and Albany in a PPP with CSX, I’m convinced that if the legislature thought they could get away with it politically, they would dismantle the MBTA and “we don’t care how they get to work, school, the doctor, etc”.
I recently rode the new Amtrak service to Norfolk. The pride in which the Amtrak and NS employees take in that service (which will probably be expanded when NS completes capacity projects between Suffolk and the new 40mph connection to CSX at Petersburg) is something Massachusetts transportation and elected officials can’t even conceive of.
In the fourth paragraph in my previous post I inadvertently cut off the sentence “…the idea of building a cross-state service linking Boston with Albany in a PPP with CSX…”. I was stating that a concept such as that, what Virginia has successfully done with NS, is totally lost on the Massachusetts legislature and those at MassDOT. If the plan was proposed it would a non-starter with the crowd that doesn’t seem to care whether the T runs or doesn’t run.
It appears Jeffery never drove his truck to the Virginia Inland Port near Front Royal and all of the distrbution centers located along that same road. http://www.portofvirginia.com/facilities/virginia-inland-port.aspx It has regular freight schedules delivering containers there. Next in the greater Northern Virgina area it is not 1930’s roadways because you already have the Capitol Beltway at 6 lanes on each side plus a 4 lane HOT lanes in the middle and traffic is often at a grade F. You also have the 4 lanes on each side I-66 along with 6 lanes on each beside of the Dulles Tool road and Dulles access road plus the Dulles Greenway. I lived there from 1978 to 2001 and no matter how many roads they build they are often a slow crawl. The place has severe air polution troubles and it is all caused by vehicle traffic. Companies have moved out of the area because of the traffic troubles. You know it’s bad when the AAA Headquarters had to move out to Florida from the Beltway because of traffic troubles. This is why the state has fdecided to get behind rail transportation because it works. The state has also been agressive in making “smart growth planning” the way to go where they allow greater densities near transportation centers.
I can honestly say that Mr. Guse is very mistaken about the quality of highways and roads in Virginia. I worked in Northern Virginia for many years. The interstate system and state roads are top notch. Dulles Greenway, I-95, I-495, the new Wilson Bridge, I-64 down to Norfolk, Virginia has not skimped on their roads. Most of the rest of the state is rural, and the roads are fine. I am willing to wager Mr. Guise has never been to Virginia.
Virginia is one state that is working together well on a bipartisan basis. As I drive through Virginia, the state is working on its rural roads, too, improving capacity and bringing them up to proper safety standards. The state’s population has shown good steady growth recently, while maintaining its old-fashioned charm. Virginia is a leader we need to follow to end the partisan feuding and work together to get things done on time, and efficiently.
1930’s highways? Unmaintained?
You drive here often? Ever?
Perhaps Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker shoud learn from fellow Repulican Governor of Virginia Bob Mc Donnell that trains aren’t so awful after all.