County gets money to study bus, ferry transportation
Advertisement
Text size: small | medium | large
By Lillian Kafka
Published: February 26, 2008
A Potomac River ferry and bus rapid transit on U.S. 1 are two ideas that garnered the county $325,000 from the Secretary of Transportation’s Multi Modal office.
Last fall’s trial run of a ferry from Quantico to Washington, D.C., proved promising enough for the state agency to want to take a deeper look into how a catamaran could transport commuters 24 miles up the Potomac River.
Another grant would fund the study of rapid bus transit, where buses would run on dedicated high occupancy vehicle lanes on U.S. 1 from Fairfax into Prince William County.
The Multi Modal program held a grant competition for $1.5 million. Local governments and transportation authorities from across the state entered the contest with ideas for improving transportation, said Herbert Pegram, grant coordinator.
The county received $225,000 to hire a company to perform a three-day route proving exercise on a commuter ferry from somewhere in Prince William County to Washington, D.C. The exercise will measure wake and wash on the shores of the river and analyze where parking could be located at a feasible launch point, said Rick Canizales, transportation planning manager for Prince William County. The county will perform a formal bidding process to find the company responsible for performing the test.
Last fall, MetroMarine, a commuter ferry operator, and Kettler, developer of the Cherry Hill peninsula, partnered last October to time a ferry trip from Quantico to the Navy Yard. That trip lasted 58 minutes one way.
Alan Gray, owner of MetroMarine, said he’s been talking to county officials about this idea for the last 20 years.
The other $100,000 that the county received will fund a study to find out if it’s feasible to run bus rapid transit northbound on U.S. 1 from Prince William, Canizales said.
“We will be examining the relationship between Fairfax and Prince William County to see what kind of BRT or enhanced bus service we can put on the Route 1 corridor to help people to get to activity centers,” he said.
Those activity centers include Fort Belvoir, Metro stations and other stops within and outside of Prince William County.
The study will also consider a dedicated, reversible lane on U.S. 1 — after it is widened to six lanes — for buses during peak traffic hours, he said. The Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, which already operates buses in the region, will oversee the project.
Bus rapid transit is gaining attention from legislators, especially in light of a federal proposal to deny funding for a Metrorail expansion to Dulles.
Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Manassas, has a proposal awaiting House of Delegates action that would establish another study group to examine bus rapid transit and other mass transit alternatives in Northern Virginia.
The legislative subcommittee that Colgan has proposed would be charged with identifying corridors that would be impacted with changing traffic patterns as military employment centers shift over the next few years.
The Senate passed his proposal, SJ 122, and the House Rules Committee is expected to consider the resolution before next week.
Staff writer Lillian Kafka can be reached at 804-649-8710.
Post a Comment
Please Log In
Comment posting requires free registration with InsideNova.com.
Already have an account? Please log in.
Can't find what you're looking for? Try our quick search:
