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Public transportation is good for business. In addition to transporting customers and employees conveniently to community businesses, transit also attracts businesses and industries seeking to locate in Virginia because it provides access to a broader labor pool.
KPMG Peat Marwick found that since Washington, DC’s Metrorail’s first station opened in 1977, it has generated 90,000 additional jobs and $1.2 billion in additional Commonwealth tax revenues above the state contributions to Metrorail. The American Economics Group determined that the Greater Richmond Transit Company annually produces about $43 million in direct and indirect economic activity and 700 jobs in the Richmond region.
As businesses and residential areas continue to grow in Northern Virginia, the Dulles Corridor has become a key area. The Corridor stretches from Tyson’s Corner to Dulles Airport, through Fairfax and Loudoun counties, but currently has no rail system. With a projected 56% increase in employment and 58% increase in population by 2020, there is a dire need for an efficient rail system linking the corridor. The high tech industries that are expanding along the corridor consider public transit a must-have. The Dulles Corridor Rail Association is working to extend Metrorail stops to the area by 2010 and establish bus rapid transit by 2003. These transit services along the corridor are essential to sustaining business and residential growth, attracting new business, and preserving and improving the quality of life. In Hampton Roads, more than 75 percent of businesses considering relocation to the area ask about the availability of public transportation. A few years ago, the Gateway computer company chose Hampton Roads as the location for their East Coast plant, with the condition that Hampton Roads Transit would guarantee a bus route to the plant. Five years later, Gateway is still growing in Hampton Roads, and has requested that the route to the main plant be extended to serve their new distribution warehouse in the area.
In the rural areas surrounding Charlottesville, JAUNT and Charlottesville Transit Service have collaborated with large and small businesses to improve transportation for their employees. CTS serves Charlottesville and portions of Albemarle County and provides free transfers from JAUNT. Wintergreen resort has contracted with JAUNT to establish a van route for its employees. The resort pays for the operating costs and the employees pay a minimal roundtrip fare. In this mountainous, rural region, commuting costs are minimized when Wintergreen employees without cars can get to work and those with cars can avoid the expensive wear-and-tear on their vehicles.
The Omni Hotel in the Charlottesville area attracts employees by offering Commuter Choice as part of its employee benefits package. Commuter Choice refers to federal tax incentives that permit employers to offer employees a tax-free benefit to commute to work by ridesharing or public transportation. JAUNT and Rideshare were instrumental in presenting this program to the Omni for their use. The Omni plans to take the program nationwide and emphasize this employee benefit during its hiring process. Commuter Choice has also been instituted in the public sector. Governor Gilmore has required state agencies in Northern Virginia to participate in the program by paying up to $65 per month in transit commuting costs to their 8,700 employees. This monthly incentive will increase the use of public transportation in Northern Virginia, moving more people through congested corridors at peak hours and decreasing air pollution in the region.
In the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C. area, Metrorail boasts the second highest usage of public transit in the nation for getting to and from work, exceeded only by the New York City area. Loudon Transit and the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission are working together to operate the Job Access Mobility Van (the JAM Van) to get people to work on time in Culpeper and Fauquier Counties. The vans run during the busiest commuting times in the morning and evening, and seats are available by reservation. Culpeper has the newest JAM route and already boasts 400 rides per month. Loudoun Transit has also partnered with Loudoun United Way to extend bus service to Sunday afternoons to more closely match the retail communities’ hours of operation and thus increase job accessibility. For ten years, the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company has worked closely with Lynchburg Sheltered Industries, which employs disabled individuals. When the company relocated away from an existing bus line, they were able to contract with GLTC to provide extra bus runs to their facility for over 100 employees. If these same disabled individuals were unable to work and support themselves, it would cost Virginia approximately $7,000 for each person in tax dollars to provide in-home support services annually.
In areas served by public transportation in Virginia, anywhere from one-third to more than 90 percent of the area’s welfare reform recipients depend upon it. In the Roanoke Valley, transit systems have teamed up to extend public transit into Roanoke County by connecting with existing Valley Metro routes. This "feeder service" is funded by the Job Access Reverse Commuter Program as part of state and federal welfare-to-work initiatives. Ridership has skyrocketed from 36 riders in July 2000, the first month of operation, to 600 riders in August 2000. In the rural and remote Eastern Shore, STAR Transit is working with the local social services department to move people from welfare to work. Five new bus routes have been established to get employees to key industries on the peninsula, such as Bay Shore Concrete, Perdue and Tyson poultry plants and the KMC Plant.
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