RICHMOND – Since he was elected to the Virginia House, Del. Luke Torian, (D-Dumfries), has been pushing to bring Metrorail service to Prince William County.
During the 2010 legislative session, he sponsored House Bill 1313, which would have created the Prince William County Metrorail Improvement District “to provide a means of financing an extension of commuter rail service from Fairfax County into Prince William County.” That bill died in the House Appropriations Committee.
During the 2011 legislative session, Torian sponsored House Bill 2238 with the same purpose. It died in the House Transportation Committee.
But Torian isn’t giving up. This week, he introduced the legislation again – as House Bill 407. It has been referred to the House Transportation Committee for consideration.
Torian said the previous proposals languished because of misunderstandings by some legislators.
“That’s a challenge just to have them understand. We’re not asking them for any money; we’re just asking to allow the process to move forward with the study,” he said.
That study would address how the Metrorail service would be funded and constructed in Prince William County. Torian represents the 52nd House District, which includes part of the county.
Torian said Prince William County needs Metrorail service because of its ever-expanding population and the growing number of commuters.
“Right now, Prince William County has over 411,000 residents, and commuting is a big part of our community,” Torian said.
“We believe that in the future, in order to tackle some of the congestion that we have now, a Metrorail would be a great option to have available for us. We are taking the necessary steps: We want to do a study first, and then try to get stakeholders on board to support this vision for Metrorail in Prince William County.”
Besides getting the study, the project would need funding from four different entities: businesses in the county, as well as local, state and federal governments.
“It’s going to be a challenge. For example, if we had our ideal situation and we had everyone buying in, given the economic climate, it would be difficult to have the funding now,” Torian said. “But we’re not looking at funding now. We’re just looking at a study process, getting stakeholders on board, and we’ll deal with funding mechanisms later on down the road.”
I have 1 name for John Rylette, ‘Ike Leggett”. Enough said.
It makes MUCH more sense to run it to PWC than Loudoun. Loudoun is full of buffoon-like leaders who think if they have Metro, they will be in the big time…far from it…Loudoun will never be big time it will always be in Fairfax and MontCo’s shadow because its leaders are so poor year after year, election after election. Don’t believe me? Check out Eugen DelGaudio’s demeanor and record and his behavior…really bush league.
Just wait until they get the Billion Dollar Bill. $6.8/billion for 23 miles of the Silver Line. How much to reach PWC? I would guess the line will run from Vienna our I-66 to Manassass.
I could see the logic for extending the Blue out to Woodbridge—definitely Fort Belvoir what with BRAC and all.
I could also see the PWC Board looking for some way to revitalize their part of the Route 1 corridor.
OTOH, there’d have to be some work done on the core to the system.
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