VRE trains are one option for Washington, D.C.'s regional commuters. Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

The Washington Post’s Get There blog announced yesterday that Virginia Railway Express is planning service upgrades due to the availability of additional train parking space at L’Enfant station. These will include a new early morning express train from Fredericksburg, which will stop at L’Enfant Station and Union Station (this express service would take one hour to reach L’Enfant instead of the 1.5-hour travel time of the regular service.) Additionally, VRE will add cars to existing trains.

While these changes on their own are unlikely to have a big effect on area commuting patterns, they raise an important question: How is the D.C. metro area approaching regional transportation, and how should it be?

This issue has grown increasingly relevant in recent decades. Commuting has become more regional, as suburbs — then exurbs — spread farther from city centers. We now not only have metropolises but megalopolises.

What’s more, exurban commuters overwhelmingly drive alone to work. For instance, according to the 2008 American Community Survey, 81% of Loudon County workers drove alone to work, and only 2% took public transportation. Similarly, in Spotsylvania County, 76% of workers drove alone, while 5% took public transportation.

With people settling in increasingly dispersed patterns, it is difficult to provide them with alternatives to the automobile. However, offering fast, convenient, high-quality options is key to shifting regional commuters out of their cars.

In the D.C. area, exurban commuters have limited choices. If Virginia residents live within walking, biking or driving distance of one of 16 stops along two VRE lines, they can take the train. Travel times are similar to driving times when accounting for traffic, but there are only six trains from Fredericksburg during the morning peak, six from Manassas, and none of those are express trains.

Suburban Maryland residents can take the MARC train, but except for the Penn Line, there are only a handful of trains with limited stops during morning and afternoon peaks. There are a few Amtrak trains usable by commuters, but they leave infrequently and fares are high. Additionally, travelers can utilize various commuter bus systems, but travel times are longer and transferring between lines or modes is often necessary.

President Obama’s high speed rail program may be a step in the right direction. $620 million in stimulus funding will go towards developing a high speed rail corridor stretching from Charlotte to Washington. This project will put many people to work on its construction, and once completed, it will serve as an attractive, efficient alternative to the automobile that will lure drivers out of their cars.

However, as a recent Washington Post editorial points out, high speed rail projects are massive, take years to build and cost tens of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, service cuts are threatened for some of the few regional commuting alternatives that do exist. This contrast begs the question: how are our transportation dollars best spent?

The Post asks why stimulus funds weren’t dedicated to improving the Acela’s infrastructure. Similarly, should more funds be devoted to the operating expenses of our existing transit services? After all, money spent on maintaining – and even improving – important services like the VRE and MARC has the potential to save jobs and cut carbon emissions today.

While you ponder these big questions, tell the VRE what you think of their proposed service changes before they finalize them.

Post script: if you’re interested in transportation in the L’Enfant Plaza area, you may want to attend the public meeting on proposed mobility improvements held by the National Capital Planning Commission tonight at 5:30 at 401 9^th Street, NW.

Out in Germantown, it’s hard to find your way home without a car. Flickr photo by taberandrew.

Americans are spending less time in roadway congestion on their commutes to work, according to the 2009 Urban Mobility Report published today by the Texas Transportation Institute. On average, “travelers spend one hour less stuck in traffic in 2007 than they did the year before and wasted one gallon less gasoline than the year before.”

Dare I say it, but too bad I don’t drive.

Let it be known: I’m in love with MARC. But yesterday, he…I mean, it…failed me.

Yesterday evening, I boarded my regular 6:30 p.m. Brunswick Line commuter train at Union Station. As usual, I fell asleep in my comfy blue seat as the sun set outside my window (a much more pleasant experience than cramming into the underground Metro at rush hour), but when I woke up 40 minutes later, I realized we hadn’t left the station. Apparently, there was a problem with the air compressor that is used to operate the switches.

What to do? Keep waiting on the tracks, or give up and try the Red Line? I weighed my options: If I took the Metro home, I’d have to ask someone to pick me up from Shady Grove then drive me to where my car is parked at the Germantown MARC station (about a 15-minute detour), then I’d have to drive another 10 minutes in my own car to get to my front door. Or: I could wait, but who knows how long it takes to fix a broken air compressor?

Impatience prompted me to give up on my usually trusty and reliable MARC and opt for the subway, which has been plagued by delays and crowded cars since last week’s Fort Trotten accident.

My normally one-hour, door-to-door evening commute (ride the train–>drive my car–>arrive relaxed at home), turned into a 2.5 hour ordeal (fall asleep on stalled train–>begrudgingly board the Red Line–>embarrassingly get picked up by my Dad at Shady Grove–>drive together to Germantown train station–>switch to my own car–>drive in the dark, annoyed that I missed the last few hours of sunshine–>arrive hungry and tired at home.)

But what if I wasn’t spoiled by a father (or a friend) who could pick me up at a moment’s notice? How would I have gotten home from Shady Grove? Turns out, the only option that was feasible at that time of night was a taxi. Trip Planner shows no buses between Shady Grove and Germantown MARC after 8:00 p.m. (and even if I somehow arrived before then, I’ve have to take two different bus lines, totaling about half an hour in transit.) No bus, no light rail, no bike rentals, no mini-van shuttles. Why are there no feeder routes integrating the subway to the commuter rail, running at all times of the day? Surely, 8:30 p.m. is not past public transit’s bedtime.

Worst of all, I should have just taken the train. As my father was waiting to pick me up at the “Kiss-and-Ride” parking lot, he noticed MARC zip by on the nearby train tracks about 10 minutes before my Red Line subway car reached the platform.