When the next Congress takes office in 2017, one of the first big items on the agenda will be infrastructure spending. And Virginia may benefit from an agreement between a Republican president and Democrats in Congress.
All aboard. This train is bound for inventory — infrastructure inventory, that is — as Senator Tim Kaine tours the newest station on the Virginia Railway Express. That would be the Spotsylvania station, which opened about a year ago. Leading the tour, Spotsylvania Supervisor Gary Skinner is obviously very proud.
“We actually have a head here, a restroom. So at other stations you’ve got to wait until a train comes. OK? But here, and this was important, believe it or not, little tiny things. Nice room here. It’s heated. It’s air-conditioned. Plus, one nice thing, it really took the parking problem out of Fredericksburg.”
But the tour did not come without some significant requests. VRE wants an additional $20 million from the General Assembly each year to expand service. And the commuters train service also wants $600 million to increase capacity over the Long Bridge leading into D.C. After the tour, Senator Kaine said he was hopeful he could work with the new president.
“There would be too much congestion if 20,000 people couldn’t take rides every year on VRE. And so it will give me more information that I can use to make the case for why infrastructure spending could be such an important part of what we do next year.”
Ultimately, transportation officials want to connect a high-speed rail line all the way south to Raleigh, North Carolina.