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RESOLUTION • WHEREAS, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) is developing a State Rail Plan that will address the present and future needs for rail in the Commonwealth and provide a strategy to address them, and WHEREAS, the State Rail Plan will address commuter, intercity, higher speed and high speed rail services as well as multimodal integration of rail with other modes of transportation, and WHEREAS, the DRPT has asked for public input on the needs, priorities and rail improvements to be considered when developing the State Rail Plan, and WHEREAS, the US29 — I-66 (Piedmont) rail corridor between Danville and Alexandria is home to 30% of the state's population, and WHEREAS, the cities, towns and counties of the Piedmont Corridor have experienced significant growth — both residential and commercial — and with it, significant increases in highway traffic travel time for through -corridor trips, and WHEREAS, Charlottesville and the surrounding Albemarle County, home of Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, has been a transportation cross roads since colonial times and as well as a major east -west and north -south rail hub, and • WHEREAS, fifty years ago, when the combined population of the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County was less than 60,000 and the University of Virginia had an enrollment of 5,000 students, the city was the stop for 22 passenger trains a day operated by the Southern and C & O Railroads, and WHEREAS, today, with a metro area population of almost 200,000 and a University enrollment of more than 20,000, the community is served by only one round-trip train a day between New Orleans and New York and an additional train three days a week between Chicago and New York, and WHEREAS, these trains are frequently overbooked and cannot meet the passenger demand in our area, and ridership is hampered by the poor on-time performance (Crescent 68%; Cardinal 18%) on their long-distance routes, due largely to interference with freight and poor infrastructure in non -Virginia portions of the route, and WHEREAS, in spite of these impediments the Charlottesville Amtrak station has the highest ridership per scheduled weekly train of any Amtrak station in Virginia, including Richmond, Newport News, Alexandria, Fredericksburg and Williamsburg, and WHEREAS, a Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce survey found that more than 60% of area businesses regularly conduct business in DC and Northern Virginia;