Not just commuters

December 7, 2008 12:36 am

A PLANNED POLL of Greater Fredericksburg businesses regarding the Virginia Railway Express will, it's safe to predict, find that most support VRE, and that its backers include the 400 Spotsylvania County firms belonging to the Fredericksburg Area Chamber of Commerce. Whence does this support arise? Not just from abstract civic-mindedness.

The owners and employees of many Spotsylvania businesses surely use the commuter rail service on occasion to conduct commerce in Washington or elsewhere on the Fredericksburg Line. These entrepreneurs and workers aren't included in VRE's estimate of Spotsylvanians (between 952 and 1,000) who board its trains daily to get to work. But these travelers also benefit from (normally) efficient and comfortable transportation that precludes traffic stress, parking hassles, and vehicular accidents.

What's more, many other Spotsylvania residents use VRE now and again, sometimes with kids in tow, on day trips to see the D.C. sights. Of the county's perhaps 125,000 residents, the number who ride in a VRE car sometime during the year might easily be in the tens of thousands. Yet, unlike similarly sized Stafford County, not to mention the small city of Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania doesn't support VRE with a 2 percent tax on its gasoline receipts. Thus, county residents get the benefit of a good transit system that their local government doesn't help maintain.

The arguments for Spotsylvania to climb aboard the train are well-known. The 2 percent surtax would yield extra money to help maintain and build county roads at a time when state DOT coffers are bare. VRE ridership, which Spotsylvania's membership would spur ("if we're paying for it, we'd better use it") would reduce wear on those roads and lighten congestion. Spotsylvanians have obliquely OK'd county participation by supporting a bond referendum that set aside money to build a VRE station. Regionalism would grow stronger, a boon to all. So far, however, four concurrent "aye" votes on the Board of Supervisors have been elusive.

Maybe a strong showing of support for VRE by Spotsylvania businesses will move one or more hesitant supervisors to vote to join the rail service. More of their constituents than they think may be on track to support that decision.