We’ve only ridden the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail once in an ill-fated experiment to see if it could help us bypass Memorial Day Traffic on Rt. 66. It didn’t. But for the thousands of Virginia commuters who count on it to get them to work every day, their ride is going to might get a bit more expensive.

For the fifth consecutive year time in recent years, VRE is hiking might hike fares to close budget gaps. Ticket prices will rise 2 percent across the board, and the surcharge to ride Amtrak trains will increase as well. In addition, VRE is cutting would cut security, eliminateing eliminate discount programs, and washing wash the rail cars less frequently, all in an effort to meet an $8 million shortfall caused by falling ridership levels. However, just this past spring, VRE was “a victim of its own success,” and planning on buying 50 new cars to meet ridership demands. What happened?

Well, part of it might have been the failure of the Virginia Assembly to pass any meaningful transportation funding this year. Without money to buy enough new rail cars, unbearably crowded conditions with no prospect of relief certainly have had an impact on ridership. Also, freight trains that use the same tracks as the commuter trains have been notoriously bad at working with VRE to minimize delays to passengers. Half of all VRE trains were late last year as a result. Add to that the speed restrictions due to summertime heat, and even your most dedicated transit riders would pick a traffic jam over a packed train that consistently arrives several hours late.

Since summer speed restrictions have been lifted and on-time performance has increased over the past few months, ridership started to climb again, as it has overall during the past few years. However, the measures being recommended to balance the books might drive away even more riders. Dropping the security cuts should be a no-brainer after the tragedies in London and Madrid (isn’t there some huge pool of Homeland Security cash to pay for this, anyway?), and cutting funding for marketing is equally counter-intuitive if the goal is to attract more riders and regain lost farebox revenue.

But then again, when it comes to transportation, Virginia is not exactly known for being reasonable.

Photo by Grundlepuck