There is a market in the business community for a commuter rail between Charlottesville and the Washington, D.C., metro area, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The survey sought to gauge the interest of the Chamber's membership of 2,200 local businesses. Of the 231 members who responded, 67 percent said they would use a daily rail link with an estimated travel time of two hours and 25 minutes.
"This is a very preliminary question: Is there a market here?" Chamber President Timothy Hulbert said. "The answer is yes, there are already significant links between business in Charlottesville and D.C."
The survey began in October. At this time, there are no specific plans to complete such a rail link, but Hulbert said he hopes the survey will spur local officials to take action.
"We have shared this information with our elected officials," Hulbert said. "We would anticipate that they would see this and lead."
Other organizations have also noticed significant interest in getting a commuter rail. Meredith Richards, a founder of Charlottesville Citizens for Better Rail Alternatives, said 60 people attended a recent organizational meeting for the group and that she receives at least one e-mail per day about the issue. Interest in the University community is also very high, she said, and plans are underway to conduct more extensive surveys.
"We have received a tremendous -- a real outpouring -- of interest among students," Richard said. "Frankly, I'd like to see more student activism on this issue."
Richards said advocates planned to continue to demonstrate a market for the proposed rail and seek potential funding sources.
Proposals include working with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to extend the Virginia Rail Express, currently running from Washington, D.C., Union Station to Manassas to Charlottesville twice a day.
The VDRT estimated it will cost $2 million initially to improve existing tracks and then an additional $1.5 million annually to operate the trains, according to Richards. The costs are contained because the VRE already owns the trains and pays to operate them in the Northern Virginia area, reducing the marginal cost of extending service to Charlottesville.
The VDRT representative knowledgeable about the project did not return a message left yesterday requesting confirmation of these cost estimates.
Currently, Amtrak offers daily service in Charlottesville to and from D.C. on the Crescent line. Yet the service is widely criticized for its poor on-time performance and lack of availability because seats are reserved for passengers taking longer trips.
"Amtrak is having severe managerial and funding problems," Richards said. "They are chronically late. We need reliable, on-time and accessible daily service to D.C. Amtrak is none of those things."
In the 2005 fiscal year, the Crescent's on-time service rating was 57 percent, according to Amtrak spokesperson Tracy Connell. In the year-to-date, which began Oct. 1, the line arrived on-time only 20 percent of the time. Connell attributed the poor performance to the fact that Norfolk-Southern owns the rails on the Crescent line and takes precedence over passenger trains. The problem has been aggravated by additional freight that is rerouted as a consequence of Katrina, she added.
If Charlottesville had VRE service, Richards said, passengers would be able to buy their tickets on the platform the day of travel on a first-come, first-serve basis. Commuter trains tend to have higher on-time percentages than long-distance routes.
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