Long Bridge expansion key to region’s passenger rail growth

NEWINGTON — The future of increased rail transportation in the region and the state hinges on Long Bridge.

The 114-year-old steel truss bridge links Virginia and Washington D.C. and carries 76 trains every weekday — a mix of freight, Amtrak, and Virginia Railway Express trains.

The bridge has only two tracks, and with three tracks approaching the bridge to the north and the south, it’s a bottleneck that slows existing trains moving in and out of the capital city, and one that limits the potential to bring new high-speed train service to the southeastern U.S.

Transportation officials gathered near Springfield on Monday and spent the morning talking about the importance of the construction of a new bridge span next to the old one, in an attempt to ring the bells of Richmond legislators. A new span would increase the number of tracks from two to four and would more than double the number of trains that could operate on the east coast’s north-south corridor, they said.

The need for a new bridge span over the Potomac River comes as rail traffic in the region is expected to grow. VRE plans to increase the number of trains it runs to 92 per day by 2040, up from 34. Amtrak plans to run 44 trains by that time, up from 24. And Maryland’s MARC commuter rail service also would like to run eight trains per day by 2040 to better connect commuters in that state with Virginia.

“Longbridge is transformational for the region,” said VRE CEO Doug Allen. “It would make more capacity for freight and passenger rail service… we have to keep pushing for its construction… we have to show the vision and keep pushing for it.”

Transportation last month identified what type of new Long Bridge span they want to build. At an estimated cost of $1.3 billion, now, it’s just a matter of who is going to pay for it.

The Virginia General Assembly passed landmark transportation funding reform in 2013, raising the state’s gas tax for the first time in 25 years, and hiked the sales tax in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Since then, much of the Northern Virginia region has been focused on fixing Metrorail, and on adding toll lanes to Interstates 66 and 95.

But with at least 25,000 new jobs coming to a new Amazon headquarters in Arlington, officials say companies like Amazon want more transit options in cities and towns across the region where their workers will live.

“With the bridge, people commute from Richmond or Fredericksburg can commute to work by train,” said Senator Scott Surovell (D-36, Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford).

And because the bridge would open up transit options to more commuters in the state, it’s essential businesses start talking about the Long Bridge expansion, too.

“Getting the business groups to talk about this more is key. It can’t just come from the public side,” said Allen. “Then we must look for possible funding sources to make this dream a reality.”

Delegate Vivian Watts (D-39, Fairfax) says shifting money around from one category to another is not the answer to funding the region’s increasing transportation needs.

She suggests raising the state’s transient occupancy taxes (hotel tax) and grantor’s taxes (tax on writing a deed to a property at a Virginia Circuit Court office) to generate new revenue for transportation. It’s an idea floated last year during the General Assembly session that was introduced to raise more money for Metro. It failed to pass on a final vote, but maybe worth a second look.

“I believe the support is there, and we can’t just whimper away and go another 25 years and not address these surface needs,” said Watts.