TRANSPORTATION ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH – THE REALITY

We can see the signs of this crisis across the Commonwealth:

• Commuting time: Northern Virginia with its growing population has the second-longest commuting time in the nation (just behind 4 New York boroughs) – an average of 29.4 minutes.
• Maintenance of Public  Transportation: Metro and Virginia Railway Express need additional resources to maintain their reliability and capacity.  WMATA estimates that maintaining its “state of good repair” status will require $7.1 billion in the next 10 years from the Commonwealth.  The impact of inadequate funding for maintenance was made clear in the 2009 Fort Totten metro accident and the continuing service breakdowns.
• Port Facilities: The Hampton Roads region is bisected by bodies of water that people and products need to go over or under.  Its port facilities are a key component of Virginia’s continued economic growth, but only if the cargo can move to and from those facilities efficiently.
• Transportation Needs Across State: The southern and southwestern parts of the Commonwealth have suffered serious economic setbacks over the past decade.  Economic revival depends on an adequate transportation system.

Two outside forces – Federal Stimulus money for transportation projects and the Federal transportation funding for phase I of the Dulles rail project – have helped fund critical transportation projects:

• Federal Stimulus: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Federal Stimulus) is providing $694.5 M to Virginia for transportation projects. The projects will be particularly focused on bridges and roads. Transportation projects supported in Arlington are: Route 50/Courthouse Interchange ($10.4M); Columbia Pike improvements ($2.2M); new ART buses ($1.3M); communication improvements for ART bus system ($1.3M).  Stimulus funding will also provide $202M to the Metropolitan Washington Transit Authority for facilities, buses and equipment.
• Metro to Dulles: Planning for Metro to Dulles Airport dates as far back as 1962 with the opening of the Dulles terminal.  Finally in 2008 the Federal commitment of $900M for Phase I was signed on March 10.  Construction began on March 12.  Phase 1 of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project will run from the East Falls Church Metro Station westward with four stations in Tysons Corner to the Wiehle Avenue beginning in late 2013.  Phase 2, opening in 2016, has six stations – Reston Parkway, Herndon-Monroe, Route 28, Dulles Airport, Route 606 and Route 772.

The stimulus money and the Dulles project plus the leadership Arlington County has taken to address local transportation challenges (bicyclists,  pedestrians and

commuters) will make a difference.  However, regional transportation problems can’t be solved piecemeal or by one jurisdiction.  They do not relieve the state of its transportation responsibilities.

The state transportation challenge is two-fold:

• The transportation needs of Virginia must be addressed as a whole.
• The requirements of high growth areas and Hampton Roads must be addressed adequately in this planning.

We will only craft a comprehensive solution that accomplishes the tasks and is paid for IF:

• We come up with a regional and statewide approach that comes up with the money required to pay for the concrete and steel that make up our roads and transit system.
• We stop “wishing” our problems away and kicking the can down the road.
• We accept that we can’t sacrifice other vital state services such as education, health and public safety to pay for transportation.

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