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Meeting held to discuss Spotsylvania Technology Center Date published: 10/9/2008
BY BILL FREEHLING Bringing the Virginia Railway Express to Spotsylvania County is key to making the Spotsylvania Technology Center a success, the center's executive director said at a planning meeting Tuesday. Bob Duffy made the remarks while addressing a group at the Fredericksburg Country Club. The meeting was held to continue ironing out plans for the STC. The technology center is part of the Tricord Cos.' planned Summit Crossing development south of U.S. 17 and east of Interstate 95 near the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, which is now under construction. Duffy envisions gathering a stable of companies that can pool their resources to go after big government contracting jobs. SimVentions, a software-development firm that specializes in tactical software for the military, is spearheading the vision. It's now in the Deep Run Office Park off Bowman Drive. Duffy said that people in areas to the north such as Woodbridge would likely be willing to commute to Spotsylvania if they could take the VRE train south to the proposed station near the STC, which could include as much as 650,000 square feet of office space. Tricord principal Mike Jones said he has spoken with VRE officials, and they told him it would be possible to run a southbound train in the morning and a northbound route in the afternoon. Mark Roeber, VRE's manager of public affairs and government relations, said the train service is focused on growing "north-south" service first, where riders from the south commute north in the morning and south in the evening. Running "continuous-flow" train service, with trains operating in both directions throughout the day, would require a second platform at each station and a third track running the length of the Fredericksburg Line. VRE is planning to build second platforms, and a third track, but those are large projects that will take time to build, Roeber said. "We're not at that point yet," he said. Plus, CSX Corp. owns the tracks and controls train movement. "No matter what we did, whether it's adding one train or 20 trains, they have to be on board with the whole approach," Roeber said.
Getting the good jobs here so I can stop commuting is
worth anything the Supervisors can do. It seems like VRE
is key to making it happen. A lot of us pay the VRE tax
now whenever we fill up in the City or in Stafford and the
prices in Spotsy are no different. We just don't get
anything for prices we pay. I'm for it. The 2% gas tax is
invisible.
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