Virginia Railway Express may be coming to C’Ville …
Charlottesville Podcasting Network has another outstanding and decidedly pertinent story –
Charlottesville Citizens for Better Rail Alternatives … held its first organizational meeting last week at the Downtown Visitors’ Center, and consisted of a public presentation by Meredith Richards, former city councilwoman and candidate for Congress. Richards is now the public voice of the group, which hopes to convince the Virginia Railway Express to extend its service all the way to Charlottesville.
Brilliant. C-Ville and the HooK have been all over this story for the past few months -
The two points of view –
Pro –
The Washington commute on the proposed Virginia Railway Express would take two-and-a-half hours each way, so unless the invading hordes are willing to commute five hours each day for their jobs, the “bedroom community” scenario is not likely. But by providing reliable daily passenger train service to D.C., the VRE would take hundreds of cars off the road every day, easing our congested traffic on 29 and putting significantly less toxic emissions in the air per passenger than the same trip by car— (from a letter to the Editor in C-Ville)
Con –
As one who fled the wretched excesses of Northern Virginia (too many people, too many strip malls, too much traffic, too many townhouses) for the sanctity of Albemarle County, I am greatly frightened to see that there are those within our wonderful community who are working hard to destroy this place in the name of progress, or under the dubious umbrella of pollution emissions controls.
One only need look at the bastardization of Gainesville, that beleaguered segue into Northern Virginia, to see what happens when a quaint little town with lovely farmland becomes a “bedroom community” of Washington, D.C. (from another letter to the Editor in C-Ville)
I will forgo the desire to point out to the writer above that she is part of the problem, both those who move here and those who move here and don’t want anyone to follow (see:NIMBY)
We should be working on solutions to the local infrastructure issues as vehemently and vigorously as those who are striving to bring rail in. If we can become part of a larger rail infrastructure, great. I would love to pop up to D.C. to see a show, as I am sure that those in D.C./NoVa would like to come here for one of the upcoming shows. I have written before about studies that show property values increasing due to their proximity to mass transit. As our region becomes more segmented, some form of efficient mass transit very well may be a necessity. The trouble is that looking 20 to 30 years into the future is 1) too much for too many people and 2) politicians are more often too focused on the next election.
Technorati Tags: Central Virginia, growth, transportation
