By Cruz Walden, VCU Capital News Service
RICHMOND, Va. — Jerrad Lee leaves his Midlothian house at 5:20 a.m., skipping the morning cup of coffee if he is running late.
Lee arrives at the Staples Mill Amtrak station just in time to catch the 6:05 a.m. train to Union Station in Washington. Once on the train, he stops by the cafe cart to grab his favorite menu item: egg bites. Lee settles in his seat, pulls out a laptop and works for the next two hours until the train arrives.
Lee is a supervisor for the U.S. Department of Labor, on the unemployment insurance improvement team. He has commuted to Washington since the beginning of the year, and now works a hybrid schedule of one week remote, the next in person.
“Coming home just depends on my meeting schedule,” Lee said. “Thankfully, there are trains that run at 2:35, 3:50, and 5:50. Or, worst case scenario, 7:25.”
He wishes there was just one more afternoon route to Richmond. Regardless, the options allow Lee to stay as long as he needs.
Lee and other commuters avoid the gridlock and delays that are often part of traveling to the nation’s capital. Passenger rail also allows people like Lee to work in Washington and live in a smaller, more affordable area, such as Richmond.
“I avoid that like the plague,” Lee said. “This allows us to live here and enjoy just how awesome and relaxed and chill of an area that Richmond is.”
Amtrak ridership numbers have rebounded from peak-COVID years and are up from over a decade ago. President Joe Biden, avid train fan and commuter, pushed billions toward rail improvements as part of his drive to improve infrastructure. Although Biden’s administration is leaving the station, the transportation improvements are just getting underway in Virginia.
State transportation advocates look forward to how the next administration could expand on these initiatives.
How Key Changes to Virginia Rail Came About
The Biden administration passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, sometimes called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in 2021. The act was designed to improve U.S. infrastructure, not just transportation, but to expand clean water access, increase high-speed internet access and reduce greenhouse emissions.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $66 billion for the improvement of passenger rail and will provide up to an additional $36 billion over the next five years for the Department of Transportation’s rail programs.
Key Virginia improvements have been underway since before the Biden administration, such as the Long Bridge project in Northern Virginia, which has been in the works since 2011. The funds helped advance the plans.
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority formed to handle the state’s rail projects. The new Long Bridge will add two additional tracks over the Potomac River to help ease heavy train traffic. In addition, the VPRA plans to construct a dedicated pedestrian and bicycle bridge alongside the existing bridge.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funded several grants and initiatives, including the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program, according to the DOT website.
The Federal Railroad Administration in 2023 awarded the VPRA $729 million in grant funding for Long Bridge and other projects.
DJ Stadtler is the VPRA executive director. Virginia already had projects in development, and the Biden administration helped with funding, Stadtler said.
“We were able to take advantage of those funding opportunities, and that’s really helped us stay on schedule,” Stadtler said.
The Long Bridge project is in phase four of its plan, which encompasses design and construction. The project is estimated to be completed by 2030, according to the VPRA’s website.
How the Next Administration Could Continue These Improvements
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on hefty investment in rail infrastructure in 2016. When he was first in office, his administration reduced funding for the DOT across several sectors, including Amtrak’s 15 long-distance routes, according to Railway Technology. Industry experts described Trump’s railway policy as “inconsistent.”
California sued the Trump administration in 2019 after the federal government pulled nearly $1 billion in funding allocated for the development of the state’s high-speed rail.
Trump has also promised to trim the federal workforce by eliminating and relocating thousands of positions, which could impact the number of train commuters.
Vice President Kamala Harris supported development of high-speed rail in her home state of California during her time as the state’s attorney general. Harris in 2017 called infrastructure spending a “human rights issue.” Many Americans cannot afford to live where they work and need better transportation, according to Harris.
Danny Plaugher is executive director of both the Virginia Transit Association and Virginians for High Speed Rail.
The Long Bridge is a historic project, and Virginia also received $100 million for the Franconia-Springfield Bypass, Plaugher said.
“Those two grants are the largest rail grants that Virginia has ever received, and both of those came under the IIJA,” Plaugher said.
Money should be invested in passenger rail, rather than roads, according to Plaugher. It costs billions to add lanes to roadways such as Interstate 95. States get more use out of the same money when they put it toward rail.
“We have proven time and again that we are never going to pave our way out of traffic,” Plaugher said.
As far as the possibility of the federal government taking away Virginia’s allocated grant funding, Plaugher said “not easily.”
Both parties should support the railway efforts, according to Lee. He will commute as long as current standards are upheld and improvements continue.
“In my mind, rail should be bipartisan,” Lee said. “I mean, I think anyone in Richmond who has tried to drive to D.C. for work would absolutely understand that we can’t just expand 95 and magically, it’ll be awesome. You know? So I would just say continued funding and infrastructure improvements.”
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.