Amazon gives Virginia the opportunity to build a 21st century transportation network
Danny Plaugher, who wrote this in January 2019, is executive director of Virginians for High Speed Rail. He serves on the board of RVA Rapid Transit, the Capital Region Collaborative’s Transportation Working Group and the Virginia Conservation Network’s Land Use and Transportation Committee. He can be emailed at Danny@vhsr.com.
Danny Plaugher, who wrote this in January 2019, is executive director of Virginians for High Speed Rail. He serves on the board of RVA Rapid Transit, the Capital Region Collaborative’s Transportation Working Group and the Virginia Conservation Network’s Land Use and Transportation Committee. He can be emailed at Danny@vhsr.com.
With the recent announcement that Amazon is bringing 25,000-plus high-paying jobs to Crystal City in Northern Virginia, I believe now is the perfect opportunity to move the commonwealth’s transportation system into the 21st century.
Now is a great time to move away from the “more roads” transportation plan to an “all-of-the-above” plan.
The reasons: A) driving is expensive and B) Generations Y and Z just aren’t that into cars.
Let’s face it, there just isn’t enough money to pave our way out of congestion. By my calculation, using data on the increase in the average vehicle mile traveled per lane mile on Virginia highways, it would cost nearly $200 billion just to turn back Virginia’s traffic clock to 1990!
And, this would be in addition to our current transportation spending. Having put a vast majority of our transportation tax-dollars over the previous decades into one basket means that over time our return on investment has continually decreased while the burden of just trying to maintain our current network has become more and more expensive.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, Americans (through federal, state, and local tax dollars) spend about six cents per passenger mile annually to build and maintain our roadways. Throw in the fact that AAA estimates that it costs an average of 67 cents per passenger mile in above-the-pavement costs (gas, oil, insurance, tires, financing, etc.) to own and operate an automobile, and Virginians are spending more than $61 billion annually for the privilege of driving.
That’s about $10,393 per licensed driver, which doesn’t even take into account the costs associated with wasted time, tolls, lost economic opportunities and increased pollution.
The good news is that my fellow millennials (and GenZ) don’t particularly enjoy driving. Because if they begin to mimic previous generations’ driving habits it could be devastating to our transportation budget, infrastructure capacity and our economic competitiveness.
More than 26 percent of Virginia’s driving-eligible millennials don’t even have a driver’s license, and if they drove at the same rate as our baby boomers, traffic in the state would increase 9 percent instantly. That’s the equivalent of an additional 650,000 automobiles on Virginia’s roadways. But, it’s not only that they have fewer driver’s licenses.
Millennials are also driving fewer miles per capita than previous generations, which is in-line with a recent American Public Transportation Association report finding that nearly two-thirds of transit users have a driver’s license!
A recent study by Arity (a spinoff of Allstate Insurance) found that 59 percent of millennials would rather do something more productive than driving, and a survey done by the University of Michigan a few years ago found that 69 percent of millennials and younger Generation Xers say they do not drive because they prefer to walk, bike, ride transit or rideshare.
Saying we’re going to continue to stay competitive in the global economy by installing payphones on every corner instead of 5G cell towers doesn’t make much sense. Neither does paving more and more roads for a workforce that prefers to multitask while commuting.
In 2017, 70 percent of every federal, state and local dollar spent on surface transportation went to building and maintaining our roadways. In Virginia’s own six-year transportation improvement plan, 82 percent of every transportation dollar goes towards roadways, with transit receiving about 13 percent of transportation funding and rail projects getting a little bit over four percent.
Thanks to the strong bi-partisan leadership of every governor since Tim Kaine, we’ve made decent strides in getting more “multi-modal.”
The real opportunity for making significant changes over the next few years is three-fold.
First, we need to increase rail and transit’s percentage of transportation funding to a minimum of 40 percent. Next, we need to make sure that every major road project includes either a transit/rail alternative or a transit/rail component as part of the project. Finally, every regional transportation program — whether it’s in NoVA, Hampton Roads, Richmond or the Valley — must allow for funding to be invested in multi-modal projects.
Virginians have already proven that if you build reliable alternatives to the car, they will use them.
Just look at our major regional transit projects over the last several years. The Tide, Virginia’s first light rail line, reached 10 million total riders earlier this year; the Pulse, Richmond’s Bus Rapid Transit line is beating ridership expectations by nearly 50 percent; and Virginia Railway Express, Northern Virginia’s commuter rail service, has seen its ridership grow by double digits this year.
The commonwealth has also begun to make solid investments to improve our intercity passenger rail network, which has resulted in over six million Virginians having better rail service. These investments have also increased service by 19 percent and led to ridership growing 70 percent over the last decade.
Let’s take this opportunity to move our transportation system into the next century.
Now is a great time to move away from the “more roads” transportation plan to an “all-of-the-above” plan.
The reasons: A) driving is expensive and B) Generations Y and Z just aren’t that into cars.
Let’s face it, there just isn’t enough money to pave our way out of congestion. By my calculation, using data on the increase in the average vehicle mile traveled per lane mile on Virginia highways, it would cost nearly $200 billion just to turn back Virginia’s traffic clock to 1990!
And, this would be in addition to our current transportation spending. Having put a vast majority of our transportation tax-dollars over the previous decades into one basket means that over time our return on investment has continually decreased while the burden of just trying to maintain our current network has become more and more expensive.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, Americans (through federal, state, and local tax dollars) spend about six cents per passenger mile annually to build and maintain our roadways. Throw in the fact that AAA estimates that it costs an average of 67 cents per passenger mile in above-the-pavement costs (gas, oil, insurance, tires, financing, etc.) to own and operate an automobile, and Virginians are spending more than $61 billion annually for the privilege of driving.
That’s about $10,393 per licensed driver, which doesn’t even take into account the costs associated with wasted time, tolls, lost economic opportunities and increased pollution.
The good news is that my fellow millennials (and GenZ) don’t particularly enjoy driving. Because if they begin to mimic previous generations’ driving habits it could be devastating to our transportation budget, infrastructure capacity and our economic competitiveness.
More than 26 percent of Virginia’s driving-eligible millennials don’t even have a driver’s license, and if they drove at the same rate as our baby boomers, traffic in the state would increase 9 percent instantly. That’s the equivalent of an additional 650,000 automobiles on Virginia’s roadways. But, it’s not only that they have fewer driver’s licenses.
Millennials are also driving fewer miles per capita than previous generations, which is in-line with a recent American Public Transportation Association report finding that nearly two-thirds of transit users have a driver’s license!
A recent study by Arity (a spinoff of Allstate Insurance) found that 59 percent of millennials would rather do something more productive than driving, and a survey done by the University of Michigan a few years ago found that 69 percent of millennials and younger Generation Xers say they do not drive because they prefer to walk, bike, ride transit or rideshare.
Saying we’re going to continue to stay competitive in the global economy by installing payphones on every corner instead of 5G cell towers doesn’t make much sense. Neither does paving more and more roads for a workforce that prefers to multitask while commuting.
In 2017, 70 percent of every federal, state and local dollar spent on surface transportation went to building and maintaining our roadways. In Virginia’s own six-year transportation improvement plan, 82 percent of every transportation dollar goes towards roadways, with transit receiving about 13 percent of transportation funding and rail projects getting a little bit over four percent.
Thanks to the strong bi-partisan leadership of every governor since Tim Kaine, we’ve made decent strides in getting more “multi-modal.”
The real opportunity for making significant changes over the next few years is three-fold.
First, we need to increase rail and transit’s percentage of transportation funding to a minimum of 40 percent. Next, we need to make sure that every major road project includes either a transit/rail alternative or a transit/rail component as part of the project. Finally, every regional transportation program — whether it’s in NoVA, Hampton Roads, Richmond or the Valley — must allow for funding to be invested in multi-modal projects.
Virginians have already proven that if you build reliable alternatives to the car, they will use them.
Just look at our major regional transit projects over the last several years. The Tide, Virginia’s first light rail line, reached 10 million total riders earlier this year; the Pulse, Richmond’s Bus Rapid Transit line is beating ridership expectations by nearly 50 percent; and Virginia Railway Express, Northern Virginia’s commuter rail service, has seen its ridership grow by double digits this year.
The commonwealth has also begun to make solid investments to improve our intercity passenger rail network, which has resulted in over six million Virginians having better rail service. These investments have also increased service by 19 percent and led to ridership growing 70 percent over the last decade.
Let’s take this opportunity to move our transportation system into the next century.
Brightline now will be called Virgin Trains USA. Here's what to expect next week and beyond.
One year after the Brightline commuter rail line unveiled its downtown Miami Central station amid music, politicians’ speeches and related fanfare, an Unveiling 2.0 is scheduled Thursday April 4 as the company formally rebrands itself as Virgin Trains USA.
This time, British billionaire and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will be the focus of attention, and Miami Central will be rechristened “Virgin Miami Central.”
Branson, who last year launched an adults-only cruise line called Virgin Voyages based in Plantation, has vowed to “shake up the cruise industry” with trips that will start sailing out of Port Miami starting in 2020. And he appears intent on doing the same to the moribund passenger rail industry, which long ago was eclipsed by cars and commercial aviation.
His scheduled appearance in Miami on Thursday comes at a significant juncture for the rail line, which is seeking to raise $1.5 billion in bond funding to build an extension to Orlando.
Here’s a look at how a network of Virgin Trains USA, coupled with the Tri-Rail service, could offer the public more transit options in the coming years.
Picking the right time
Boosting the number of transit options comes at a time when commuters are pining for alternatives to roads that are choked by cars on South Florida streets and highways.
It so happens that transportation-industry shakeups are a Branson trademark: When his Virgin Atlantic Airways opened its Miami-London route in 1986, the company regaled passengers with onboard entertainment that went unmatched by the more formal British Airways.
At Virgin Voyages’ headquarters opening last year, visitors were greeted by thumping music, splashes of the Virgin brand’s familiar red, purple and silver colors, and replicas of red phone booths from the United Kingdom. And Branson’s Virgin Galactic is preparing to take tourists into outer space
Branson is joining the South Florida rail fray with plans to help shore up transit options. The Brightline trains that now serve the downtown areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach would extend to Orlando, Tampa and even Disney World, according to company announcements.
The fanfare in Miami, a Virgin Trains spokesman said, will “mark the first significant moment” of the business partnership between Brightline and Virgin Trains as management showcases new commercial visuals of the rebranding and a preview of Central Fare, a collection of restaurants and bars.
Linking to big transit hubs
Virgin Trains envisions stations on the east side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and at Port Miami, where Branson’s cruise operation would operate.
Virgin Trains’ chief commercial officer Ravneet Bhandari has reportedly called the Fort Lauderdale airport “a very logical station site for us” because one of the rail corridors “is inside the airport fence and, in fact, our tracks run directly under the runway.”
He has said the rail company is in “active negotiations” to build a station, but didn’t say with whom, according to FlightGlobal.com, an aviation website.
Broward Aviation Department spokesman Greg Meyer said the department has not had any recent discussions with the train company, although the subject of a station was raised two years ago.
Teaming up
Tri-Rail, the long-running commuter rail service, has different ownership than Virgin Trains. But they soon will be joined at the hip in Miami, because Tri-Rail hopes to open a line to the Miami Central station this year. And over time, they’ll have a presence along the same Florida East Coast Railway line now served by Virgin Trains.
While Virgin Trains serves workday commuters from West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, its objective is more regional in scope. Tri-Rail’s main mission is to serve to commuters who need to get from one South Florida city to another each day.
Virgin Trains are “more tourist-oriented, which is why Orlando is key to their success,” said Steven Abrams, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates Tri-Rail. “We’ve been able to work very cooperatively together because we serve two different markets.”
Heading up Florida’s east coast
Brightline officials said last fall they are working with city managers from Fort Pierce, Sebastian, Stuart and Vero Beach to identify possible station sites on the Treasure Coast.
And there’s excitement about the rail service reaching Orlando.
“They have a potential to serve as a model to the rest of the nation on developing express intercity rail,” said Gary Huttman, MetroPlan Orlando’s executive director, according to the News Service of Florida. “We’re especially interested in Brightline’s potential to connect Central Florida to Miami and its potential to connect our SunRail passenger system to the Orlando International Airport.”
Virgin Trains may even one day serve a station at the Orlando airport’s south terminal, which is under construction.
Expanding Tri-Rail
For years, Tri-Rail has served commuters on a rail line that runs along the west side of I-95, all the way from Mangonia Park to Miami International Airport. Now, Tri-Rail is fairly close to offering passengers a way to go directly to downtown Miami, said Abrams.
“That’s far along,” he said. “That’s a real thing.”
Dubbed the Tri-Rail Downtown Link, Tri-Rail trains would cut across Miami-Dade County from its existing line and deposit passengers at Virgin Miami Central.
Abrams said a number of technical issues must be resolved before the service can start, such as scheduling and the installation of “positive train control,” a federally required safety technology designed to stop certain types of accidents.
“The [station] platform itself is pretty much complete and looks good,” he said. “That will constitute the first station of Tri-Rail Coastal Link.”
The next step would be to work with Virgin Trains to expand service northward through Miami-Dade County, he said.
There is no timetable for running Tri-Rail north along the Florida East Coast line into Broward and Palm Beach counties. But he said a northern east-west crossover line in West Palm Beach is under construction and nearing completion. “This will be a very big asset with those coastal communities,” Abrams said. “There is a lot of willingness to work with us.”
One year after the Brightline commuter rail line unveiled its downtown Miami Central station amid music, politicians’ speeches and related fanfare, an Unveiling 2.0 is scheduled Thursday April 4 as the company formally rebrands itself as Virgin Trains USA.
This time, British billionaire and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will be the focus of attention, and Miami Central will be rechristened “Virgin Miami Central.”
Branson, who last year launched an adults-only cruise line called Virgin Voyages based in Plantation, has vowed to “shake up the cruise industry” with trips that will start sailing out of Port Miami starting in 2020. And he appears intent on doing the same to the moribund passenger rail industry, which long ago was eclipsed by cars and commercial aviation.
His scheduled appearance in Miami on Thursday comes at a significant juncture for the rail line, which is seeking to raise $1.5 billion in bond funding to build an extension to Orlando.
Here’s a look at how a network of Virgin Trains USA, coupled with the Tri-Rail service, could offer the public more transit options in the coming years.
Picking the right time
Boosting the number of transit options comes at a time when commuters are pining for alternatives to roads that are choked by cars on South Florida streets and highways.
It so happens that transportation-industry shakeups are a Branson trademark: When his Virgin Atlantic Airways opened its Miami-London route in 1986, the company regaled passengers with onboard entertainment that went unmatched by the more formal British Airways.
At Virgin Voyages’ headquarters opening last year, visitors were greeted by thumping music, splashes of the Virgin brand’s familiar red, purple and silver colors, and replicas of red phone booths from the United Kingdom. And Branson’s Virgin Galactic is preparing to take tourists into outer space
Branson is joining the South Florida rail fray with plans to help shore up transit options. The Brightline trains that now serve the downtown areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach would extend to Orlando, Tampa and even Disney World, according to company announcements.
The fanfare in Miami, a Virgin Trains spokesman said, will “mark the first significant moment” of the business partnership between Brightline and Virgin Trains as management showcases new commercial visuals of the rebranding and a preview of Central Fare, a collection of restaurants and bars.
Linking to big transit hubs
Virgin Trains envisions stations on the east side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and at Port Miami, where Branson’s cruise operation would operate.
Virgin Trains’ chief commercial officer Ravneet Bhandari has reportedly called the Fort Lauderdale airport “a very logical station site for us” because one of the rail corridors “is inside the airport fence and, in fact, our tracks run directly under the runway.”
He has said the rail company is in “active negotiations” to build a station, but didn’t say with whom, according to FlightGlobal.com, an aviation website.
Broward Aviation Department spokesman Greg Meyer said the department has not had any recent discussions with the train company, although the subject of a station was raised two years ago.
Teaming up
Tri-Rail, the long-running commuter rail service, has different ownership than Virgin Trains. But they soon will be joined at the hip in Miami, because Tri-Rail hopes to open a line to the Miami Central station this year. And over time, they’ll have a presence along the same Florida East Coast Railway line now served by Virgin Trains.
While Virgin Trains serves workday commuters from West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, its objective is more regional in scope. Tri-Rail’s main mission is to serve to commuters who need to get from one South Florida city to another each day.
Virgin Trains are “more tourist-oriented, which is why Orlando is key to their success,” said Steven Abrams, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates Tri-Rail. “We’ve been able to work very cooperatively together because we serve two different markets.”
Heading up Florida’s east coast
Brightline officials said last fall they are working with city managers from Fort Pierce, Sebastian, Stuart and Vero Beach to identify possible station sites on the Treasure Coast.
And there’s excitement about the rail service reaching Orlando.
“They have a potential to serve as a model to the rest of the nation on developing express intercity rail,” said Gary Huttman, MetroPlan Orlando’s executive director, according to the News Service of Florida. “We’re especially interested in Brightline’s potential to connect Central Florida to Miami and its potential to connect our SunRail passenger system to the Orlando International Airport.”
Virgin Trains may even one day serve a station at the Orlando airport’s south terminal, which is under construction.
Expanding Tri-Rail
For years, Tri-Rail has served commuters on a rail line that runs along the west side of I-95, all the way from Mangonia Park to Miami International Airport. Now, Tri-Rail is fairly close to offering passengers a way to go directly to downtown Miami, said Abrams.
“That’s far along,” he said. “That’s a real thing.”
Dubbed the Tri-Rail Downtown Link, Tri-Rail trains would cut across Miami-Dade County from its existing line and deposit passengers at Virgin Miami Central.
Abrams said a number of technical issues must be resolved before the service can start, such as scheduling and the installation of “positive train control,” a federally required safety technology designed to stop certain types of accidents.
“The [station] platform itself is pretty much complete and looks good,” he said. “That will constitute the first station of Tri-Rail Coastal Link.”
The next step would be to work with Virgin Trains to expand service northward through Miami-Dade County, he said.
There is no timetable for running Tri-Rail north along the Florida East Coast line into Broward and Palm Beach counties. But he said a northern east-west crossover line in West Palm Beach is under construction and nearing completion. “This will be a very big asset with those coastal communities,” Abrams said. “There is a lot of willingness to work with us.”