The Commonwealth Transportation Board will vote today on the proposed High Speed rail line from Richmond to Norfolk. Hopefully, we can get the funding we need from the government and our region can finally start moving forward. Well, most of our region. Norfolk will move forward with its planned expansion of light rail. The Peninsula wants their very own light rail so that they can move forward. Portsmouth wants to move forward and join Norfolk’s light rail. I think for the most part, Chesapeake wants to move forward but at the same time, they wonder why nobody ever pays them any attention when it comes to transportation (think drawbridges). Virginia Beach does not really want to move forward. They want somebody else to move forward for them, so that they can continue to work backwards and build new highways.
HRT has named Philip A. Shucet as the new interim CEO for the company. Financially, I think that this is a great move. Due to his record on cost-control, he should bring some much needed eyes on the various budgets of HRT. One minor thing that I have to wonder about is: The
Virginian-Pilot reported that “when Shucet took over VDOT in 2002, one in every five construction projects was behind schedule, and more than half were over budget. By the end of his three-year tenure, 75 percent of projects were on time and 80 percent were on budget.” Now basic math tell us that, as for the budget part, he improved. He raised the “on budget” rate from less than 50% to around 80%. Unfortunately, basic math also tells us that, when it comes to on-time performance, he lost ground. “One in five” is 20%. That means, following various properties you thought you’d never use, 80% were on time. When he left, however, only 75% were on time. Not a large number, but large enough the Pilot decided it needed a better spin.
The part that I really worry about is whether his budgetary sense is going to have a positive or negative effect on ridership and ease of use. This man has very little in his published background that suggests that he knows anything about running a public transit company. I am not saying that this is a bad thing. Given the fact that most transit companies are poorly run, it might be time for someone who is different. I just think that we need to keep a watchful eye on what he thinks are cuts waiting to be made.
A side note from the High Speed Rail meeting that I wanted everyone to know. When Thelma Drake (who is now the new Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation) arrived to the meeting, she apologized for being late due to a State Senate Appropriations meeting. She said that “when the appropriations committee wants to meet with you, you don’t miss it.” She also, more importantly, made the comment that the committee had told her that “public transit is the future of transportation” and that we simply “cannot afford to build more roads.”
I want to emphasize the fact that the committee in charge of handing our money stated that “public transit is the future of transportation.” This is a huge leap forward for state policy on transportation. I can only hope and pray that they follow through with some HSR money and maybe some more LRT money.
Both HRT and private company MetroMarine are studying the possible use of ferries as a method to have people and vehicle from popular area to popular area. HRT wants to create commuter routes between the Peninsula and either Downtown Norfolk or the Naval Base. MetroMarine wants a public-private partnership with a much more extensive system. Either way, we need more information to choose, but the concept is promising. Each would probably have a toll (my W.A.G. would be about $5). I know that I would much rather pay $5 and take a nap/read the paper for a morning commute and not use any fuel, than spend an hour or so idling in traffic.
Regardless of what will eventually work out, I do know what won’t work: actual ferries. I read the Pilot’s headline, “HRT considering ferries to ease tunnel traffic” and it almost seemed like a parody on current events. You know? VDOT can’t afford roads, so we get HRT to enlist so ferries to see if we can really work some magic. 
Our new governor made his first speech to the General Assembly yesterday. His major issue was, of course, the budget deficit that Virginia faces. He promised to make the cuts necessary to balance the budget without raising taxes. To lead this charge, he promised to take a pay cut and his most of his staff take pay cuts and decrease the number of support staff. Once again, he also swore to privatize the ABC stores, asserting the more than $500 million could be raised with the proceeds. He promised to push for off-shore drilling. Amidst all of this, very little was actually mentioned about our transportation problems. Aside from raising the speed limit and reopening rest stops, he made no push for more highway or transit money. To help his campaign promise to create more jobs, he wants to raise the amount of money available for small businesses and lower the threshold for jobs required to be created to qualify for tax credit. He also proposed to drastically increase the amount of money available to state tourism advertising and movie recruiting, citing a new movie called “Secretariat,” about a Virginia race horse. The movie was filmed in Kentucky and West Virginia due to a lack of state promotional money. Finally, he pushed for promotional money for Virginia’s wineries and Virginia’s commercial spaceport at Wallop’s Island.
He seems to be full of ideas. Some of them I agree with (Privatizing ABC) and some of them I think are terrible ideas (off-shore drilling). I only hope that he can muster the political will to fix our transportation system. We need more money to be devoted to transit construction and operation and we need to focus highway money on the construction of rebuilt choke points.
Good Luck Governor. Good Luck GA. Good Luck Virginia. There is definitely a lot to be done.
