Kaine pushes high-speed rail for Richmond region

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today called high-speed rail service an essential ingredient in the Richmond region’s future development and promised to push hard for $1.6 billion in federal funds to make it happen.

“We cannot grow as a community in the way that we need to purely off of [Interstate] 95,“ Kaine told a group of political and business leaders from around the region at a rally today at Main Street Station in Richmond. “We have to have more vigorous rail and public transit to be all that we can be.“

The governor was joined by representatives from nine jurisdictions in the region, as well as the Greater Richmond Chamber and other chambers of commerce from throughout central Virginia that have made high-speed rail service a top political priority.

“I’ve been in Richmond for a long time, and I’ve never seen a portrait of unity like I see here today,“ Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said before introducing Kaine. “This is something we feel in our gut and know in our spirit is a win-win situation for our region. Becoming part of the Washington area metroplex is going to absolutely change the way we do business.“

Virginia has applied for $1.6 billion in federal funds available for high-speed rail service under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known as the stimulus bill. The money would pay for additional tracks and improvements between Washington, D.C., and Richmond and south to Petersburg. The improvements, beginning with a 12-mile stretch in Prince William County that currently is a bottleneck for passenger rail service, would raise speeds from 70 to 90 mph and improve reliability for a 90-minute trip between Washington and Richmond.

The improvements also would relieve a bottleneck at the Acca Yard railroad complex in Richmond that hinders service between the Staples Mill Road station in Henrico County and Main Street Station in Shockoe Bottom.

—Michael Martz