Spotsylvania residents have the chance to sound off Tuesday on whether the county should help subsidize the Virginia Railway Express commuter service that hundreds of its residents use.
Joining the train service would give the county its own station in exchange for some of the proceeds of a 2-percent gas tax. But the public hearing represents part of a more than decade-long debate for the once-rural county dealing with its new role as a bedroom community for Washington commuters.
For some transportation advocates such as Bob Chase with the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, it’s a clear-cut choice that’s long overdue.
“It’s an equity and fairness issue,” said Chase, whose nonprofit group campaigned on the issue in the 1990s. “A significant number of Spotsylvania residents utilize and benefit from Virginia Railway Express. It seems only fair that Spotsylvania be part of the system and pay a proportionate share of the costs of running it.”
The last station of the commuter train line currently is in Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania has no stations. However, VRE has said that most of the passengers who use the Fredericksburg station — and its packed parking lot — are Spotsylvania County residents.
The trains run into Spotsylvania County each day, only as empty cars bound for the rail yard each night.
To create a stop, the system would need to be build a third rail, which could take three years, according to Deputy County Administrator Ernest Pennington.
In an October 2008 VRE survey of its riders, 943 of the system’s riders lived in Spotsylvania. That’s less than 1 percent of the approximately 120,000 population, so some have argued the rest of the county shouldn’t fund rides for so few.
The county has grown more than 30 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census, more than three times faster of a rate than Virginia overall.
“Under the current system, it makes sense for Spotsylvania to be a member,” said Steve Dunham, Virginia Association of Railway Patrons chairman. “We need solutions besides highways, and VRE is one of them.”
