rail

Town officials in Herndon are preparing residents and business owners for the new  Herndon-Monroe Metro station, which is slated to open in 2016. Plans are afoot to make the area surrounding the coming station more appealing to passengers. Officials would like to see the area transformed into an attractive, walkable urban community.

Homeowners should take advantage of opportunities to be heard during this planning process. If well executed, careful development could make the area surrounding the Metro station pleasant and inviting. Prices of nearby homes could be positively affected.

Read more in The Washington Post....

The new passenger train running between Lynchburg and Boston is on track to exceed officials' goal of 51,000 riders for the year, and could exceed annual revenue estimates by $260,000.

The train runs between the two cities every day, with stops twice daily in Manassas.

Homeowners in small cities and nearby suburban areas benefit from convenient travel options to larger metropolitan areas. Such options make area properties attractive to commuters.

Read more from The Charlottesville Daily Progress....

Bob Riley, Haley Barbour, Ed Rendell, Phil Bredesen, and Bob McDonnell -- governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia, respectively -- call on the federal government to help fund the Crescent Corridor, a 2,500-mile rail route stretching across 13 states from New Jersey to Tennessee and Louisiana. Besides relieving traffic congestion, the governors cite projections that say the Crescent Corridor project will create 47,000 jobs by 2020 and 73,000 by 2030.

More jobs will lead to a more robust housing market -- great news for homeowners worried about the value of their property. Less traffic congestion would make the areas surrounding the proposed rail line more attractive to new residents, which could also have a positive impact on home prices.

Read more in The Washington Post....

Yesterday a small crowd of 250 people joined Governor Kaine to welcome the start of the first state-funded intercity passenger train, according to the Washington Post.

State officials said they expect 51,000 passengers a year to ride the Lynchburg-based train, with about 70 percent coming from the Lynchburg and Charlottesville area.

The train has three years to prove itself successful, or the service will be removed. Also, there is the opportunity for it to extend service to Roanoke and beyond if ridership is high.

The addition of this service will help connect residents in the Lynchburg area to DC, and will help to boost the local economy. Both of these are great for protecting home values.

"Virginia launches its first state-funded intercity passenger train Thursday from Lynchburg to Washington, a move that will enhance mass-transit options for Northern Virginia commuters and people across the state.

'This is very big and something that is coming after 2 1/2 years of solid hard work,' Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said Wednesday, when the train made an inaugural run. 'There is incredible enthusiasm for the kind of mobility this new service has to offer.'

The new service is part of a $17.2 million, three-year pilot program the state is running, and fully funding, to determine whether enhanced rail service is viable in Virginia. The pilot program will offer two trains, one from Richmond and one from Lynchburg, that will travel to Union Station and then on to Boston. Service between the Virginia terminuses and Washington will include stops at some Virginia Railway Express stations; service between Washington and Boston will include stops in Philadelphia and New York."

Read the full story.

Also, watch a video of the yesterday's event from WSLS 10.