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Locomotion?

Spotsylvania supervisors would be wise to sign on with the Virginia Railway Express commuter-rail service.

Date published: 11/8/2004

TRAINS ARRIVE AND depart on a regular schedule, and the refrain from Virginia Railway Express backers and others, including us, for Spotsylvania County to join the commuter service has been similarly routine.

It continues--though this (rail) line of reasoning really ought to reach its destination sooner rather than later. VRE officials visited Spotsylvania supervisors on Oct. 26 for the umpteenth time in an effort to persuade the county to join other Fredericksburg-area and Northern Virginia localities in sponsoring commuter trains.

Why should Spotsylvanians, especially those in areas where the ground has so far escaped developers' bulldozers, subsidize trains they will never use? some supervisors have asked in the past. Well, for the same reason that homeowners all over the area subsidize schools even when they have no children: Being part of a community sometimes requires the selfless support of your neighbors and the overall good. Happily, the current Spotsylvania supervisors seem to understand that concept.

They haven't signed on with VRE just yet, but talks continue. Spotsylvania's government soon will survey county residents on various topics, and one question will ask for opinions on commuter rail. If the county courthouse receives the approving stamps of enough residents, commuter trains could join Amtrak and freight cars on the tracks in Spotsylvania. Those passenger cars would have customers, too: 92 percent of those who board VRE trains in Fredericksburg live in the county.

But what of the money? Spotsylvania's problem with linking arms--or rail cars, really--with its neighbors Fredericksburg and Stafford County has been that the VRE requires member jurisdictions to impose a 2 percent tax on gasoline. Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Hagan points out that imposing the tax may not sit well with landowners used to a fiscally conservative government. But VRE officials estimate that the levy would raise $2.5 million a year, and only a bit more than $550,000 would be due the VRE. That would leave nearly $2 million to pay other transportation costs in the county.

Indeed, Stafford has netted more than $1 million annually from its tax in recent years. And the tax certainly hasn't doomed pocketbooks in Fredericksburg, which is home to some of the best petro prices in these parts. Mr. Hagan notes that Spotsylvania has earmarked a portion of its vehicle-decal fees for transportation, and that perhaps that pot could be used in the future to pay for VRE service, saving those who fill up in the county.

A question of fairness might arise if Spotsylvania were granted a special deal, but no one has formally proposed that idea. In any case, county officials may not be yelling, "All aboard!" yet, but at least they're talking.

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Date published: 11/8/2004