The Virginia Railway Express will make Monday’s deadline to purchase 50 new two-level railcars.
The Federal Railway Administration and the Office of Management and Budget approved a loan for nearly $60 million Thursday for the cars, said Mark Roeber, a VRE spokesman.
“You think that was cutting it close?” said Sharon Bulova, VRE board member and Fairfax County supervisor, who said after the vendor allowed four extensions to get to the July 31 date, OMB had held up the application when it came to analyzing the risk associated with the loan.
“We were just a different kind of animal for them to be working with on this kind of financing.”
VRE was the first commuter line to ever apply for a loan under the Federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program and will most likely serve as a model for future applications, Roeber said.
Another wrench in the funding process came when the Virginia General Assembly removed a $15 million earmark for the cars from the budget, lumped it into the $300 million surplus money that will be discussed in September as part of the transportation special session.
VRE shifted money from approved projects to make up for the gap. Roeber said he has been assured the $15 million will come to the agency after September.
“I think as soon as we start receiving the delivery of the cars, we’ll have a lot more capacity and we’ll be able to make changes in the routes,” said John Jenkins, VRE board member and Prince William County supervisor, who added the new cars further VRE’s goal to put up to 42 trains on the tracks.
“We really don’t have to keep building roads. We really need to get people into the trains,” said Hilda Barg, VRE board member and Prince William supervisor.
Establishing a Cherry Hill station, a third track between Alexandria and North Stafford and express service are all in the works, Barg and Roeber said.
