Virginia Railway Express “must rob Peter to pay Paul” to buy 50 new rail cars and delay indefinitely its plans to extend rail service to Haymarket because of the General Assembly’s stalling on a transportation package.
The $72 billion budget agreement reached last week between the Senate and House erased some $16.5 million earmarked for VRE and countless other transportation projects that were supposed to be paid for out of the $393 million in surplus funds.
VRE was supposed to get $15 million to make a down payment on 50 new rail cars that is due June 30. It was relying on state money to meet the deadline for the $92 million contract, but had to take funding from capital projects and its reserve fund, said Mark Roeber, a VRE spokesman.
“Clearly, if we don’t get the money later in this fiscal year it will have an impact on VRE,” he said.
“It is very, very disappointing that we have to rob Peter to pay Paul to get these 50 cars ordered,” said Maureen Caddigan, a Prince William County supervisor and VRE chair.
Another $1.5 million was going to be used to match federal funds and begin preliminary design and engineering steps to extend rail service to Haymarket.
The VRE money is still available from the $393 million surplus funding, but legislators must agree on which projects to fund during the fall’s transportation special session, Roeber said.
“The Rail Enhancement Fund isn’t getting its money. VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) isn’t getting its money. The whole host of things that made up that $393 million have all been shelved,” Roeber said.
“I blame [Prince William Republican] Dels. [Jeffrey] Frederick, [L.Scott] Lingamfelter, [Michele] McQuigg and the Speaker of the House for not working together with the Senate to come up with a transportation bill that would benefit the people of Virginia. We sit here in transportation gridlock and these people are the ones causing us to not make any solution to get out,” said Prince William Supervisor John Jenkins, D-Neabsco.
“Transportation was the centerpiece of their running for office and they are doing nothing,” said Caddigan, a Republican.
