Virgina Republican caters to transportation special interests, trashes trains

This item arrives from newsadvance.com in Lynchburg.

en. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, has started an online forum to point out wasteful spending by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Although VDOT is not paying for the new rail transportation, Obenshain has called the service a “pet project” that reveals misplaced priorities in the state’s transportation funding.

A Lynchburg-area lawmaker and a business leader countered that the new service, which includes another train between Lynchburg and Washington, is necessary to link multiple cities in the state to rail service for less than the cost of building a road.

They said it is the first piece of a statewide rail system that would be vital to the economy of the regions it serves, helping people and companies call Central and Southwest Virginia home.

Rule one in politics: follow the money.

Developing rail is cheaper than building wasteful and redundant highways.

Filed under: Amtrak, Passenger Rail Politics, Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy, Regional USA Passenger Rail