Fueling the Renaissance: Public Policy and Intercity Passenger Rail in Virginia

Virginia a leader in states expanding intercity passenger rail

Contact: Meredith Richards
434-825-0558 | meredith@cvillerail.org

CHARLOTTESVILLE —July 12, 2018 —The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service today published a new issue of The Virginia News Letter, titled, “Fueling the Renaissance: Public Policy and Intercity Passenger Rail in Virginia,” by Meredith Richards.

Virginia has been a leader in a national revival of intercity passenger rail, but critical policy questions must be resolved if a decade of progress is to continue. The Commonwealth is one of 18 states that partners with Amtrak, the nation’s public passenger rail carrier, to provide funding, equipment, and infrastructure support for intrastate and interstate routes of 750 miles or less. The results in Virginia are impressive: restored intercity rail service to two of Virginia’s largest cities (Norfolk and Roanoke) and expanded Northeast Regional routes that have increased ridership by 75 percent since 2006.

So where do we go from here?

This Virginia News Letter is Part 2 of a two-part series that also examines how ridership has grown not only between states on Amtrak’s national passenger rail network but also within individual states on the company’s state-supported train routes that provide regional passenger rail for millions of Americans. The first part of the series was published May 23.

The author, Meredith Richards, a former Charlottesville city councilor and vice mayor, is founder and chair of CvilleRail and the Piedmont Rail Coalition and president of the Virginia Rail Policy Institute.

Richards is available for interviews.