A New Battle from Bull Run--Prince William County tells the DC Region to DROP DEAD!

(From the Omniride website.) OmniRide is PRTC's commuter bus service. OmniRide offers convenient weekday (Monday - Friday) service (excluding some holidays) from locations throughout Prince William County along the I-95 corridor and Manassas and Gainesville areas along the I-66 corridor to destinations that include the Vienna, West Falls Church and Franconia/Springfield Metrorail Stations, the Pentagon, Crystal City, downtown Washington, D.C., Capitol Hill, and the Washington Navy Yard. See the schedules for hours of operation for each route.

Prince William County residents use the WMATA subway system daily during the work week. Most inbound VRE railroad commuters finish their trips on the subway. In addition, the Omniride bus system takes commuters directly to the West Falls Church and Vienna Metro stations Monday-Friday.

The Post reports, in "Va. House Panel Rejects Metro Funding Bill," that the Virginia House of Representatives tabled, likely indefinitely for this session, a vote on legislation approving dedicated sales taxes from Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax to support the WMATA transit system.

NPR reports that Gov. Kaine says he'll call a special session of the Virginia Legislature to deal with transportation issues if the session, which ends March 11th, doesn't result in the kind of actions he (and apparently a fair number of Virginia citizens) is looking for.

The Post article says that the tabling measure was supported by two Prince William County legislators, the aforementioned L. Scott Lingamfelter, and Jeffrey M. Frederick, "who sits on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, an organization that supported the measure."

Planning to turn these people out in the next election cycle needs to move forward...

I am a proponent of playing hardball at times like these. Prince William County residents use the WMATA transit system but "merely" pay their fares, unlike residents of the aforementioned counties who direct additional tax monies for the support of the system. (This is not a bad thing, all forms of mobility seem to be subsidized by additional tax monies--gasoline and other automobile taxes cover about 50% of the total cost of roads.)

Because Omniride is an interstate transit system since it crosses the Virginia border into DC, I am sure that it must be licensed by DC to provide such service.

Pull the permits.

Don't allow the buses to cross the state line into DC.

I'm with Gerald Connolly, quoted in the Post article thusly:

"The state can't have it both ways," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. "They can't say we're not going to do it, but we're not going to let you do it, either. At some point, Virginia has to come out on either side. One size does not fit all."

Prince William County can't have it both ways.

Take away the privilege of their transit system to come into the District of Columbia to drop off and pick up passengers.


Index Keywords: transit