Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is conducting a nationwide search to fill the position of Chief of Public Transportation

-- job announcement

The State of Virginia's Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is pretty interesting. The agency focuses transportation planning and infrastructure on both passenger and freight railroad and public transportation issues. While these issues may still not be on equal footing with highways, by having the separate agency, rail and public transportation infrastructure is not ignored.

Of course, this has nothing to do with state legislators initiating ridiculous legislation to punish local jurisdictions implementing transit plans.

DRPT is the leading agency pushing for the "extension" of the Northeast Corridor from DC to Richmond by upgrading rail infrastructure between the two cities. The point is that by extending higher speed rail service, this section of Virginia can be incorporated into the more economically successful "Northeast."

(One of the best field workshops I ever attended was at the Am. Planning Assn. meeting in DC in 2004. I took a workshop on Richmond. We took Amtrak to Richmond, and the train portion of the trip featured an onboard seminar on rail transportation featuring the chief operating officer of Virginia Railway Express, Amtrak, the vice president for passenger rail operations for CSX, and a representative from the DRPT.)