The U.S. Department of Transportation is providing a miniscule $30 million in matching funds for rail projects around the country and $2 million is headed to Virginia for $13 million rail project to lay a third track in Spottsylvania County, Virginia.  This third track is expected to ease passenger rail (i.e. Amtrak and VRE) congestion on the increasingly popular Richmond-Washington service.  What’s interesting is that the goal is to make a rail trip between Richmond and Washington (about 100 miles) faster than a 35-mile, rush-hour drive between Washington and Leesburg.

Though Amtrak currently runs service between the two cities for about $46 each way, if cheaper commuter rail ran the route, could it end up costing less than driving in from Leesburg?  In which case, could that change sprawl patters to run as nodes along rail corridors instead of every which direction?

Not any time soon.

Though gas may be more expensive that it was ten years ago, it will have to go much higher to justify a $46 train ticket.

Suburban living requires lots of driving.  Driving requires gas.  Lots of driving requires cheap gas and thus many exurbs are suffering especially hard right now, says the New York Times.

In a recent study, Mr. Cortright found that house prices in the urban centers of Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland and Tampa have fared significantly better than those in the suburbs. So-called exurbs — communities sprouting on the distant edges of metropolitan areas — have suffered worst of all, Mr. Cortright found.

In some ways this is a bittersweet phenomenon because the exurbanites tend to be a mix of the lower-middle class who cannot afford to live closer and the neauveau almost-riche who demand ridiculously large McMansions.  I feel sorry for the former, but little sympathy for the latter.