Meredith Richards is chair of the Rail Passengers Association—the country’s largest passenger rail advocacy organization—and president of the Virginia Rail Policy Institute.
Those who follow U.S. passenger rail closely know that Virginia has accomplished a lot in the last several years, and Mrs. Richards has been one of the figures at the center of it all.
In this clip, Mrs. Richards discusses how transportation officials in Virginia came to prioritize moving more people by rail as an antidote to rampant congestion on Virginia’s highways.
Key Takeaways:
The initiative that Virginia launched to expand rail service is called Transforming Rail in Virginia.
To realize this vision, the state established the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) as an independent agency outside the more highway-centric Virginia Department of Transportation.
To fund VPRA, the state legislature created the Commonwealth Rail Fund, which directs 7.5 percent of gas tax revenues to freight and passenger rail, 93 percent of which goes to VPRA. This guarantees a continuous stream of funding for rail. In contrast, at the federal level and in most states, rail funding depends on the ever-changing winds of politics.
Our new Rail Bites series presents you with some of our favorite clips from our amazing guests on Reconnect America. With Rail Bites, you can look forward to more frequent, shorter-form content in between our carefully crafted longer episodes.
Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.
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