HB 1541, introduced by Del. Delores McQuinn, will create a Central Virginia Transit Authority and potentially a dedicated funding stream for public transit in the Richmond region. That the entire nine-locality region—Ashland, Charles City, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, Powhatan, and Richmond—has come together to collectively support regional public transportation for the first time is commendable. RVA Rapid Transit is deeply thankful for all of the hard work put in by leaders, elected officials, and staff from each jurisdiction.

While we respect the work that went into this bill and agree with its overall intent, we support the following two amendments to the legislation in order to ensure that this new funding advances public transportation needs in the region:

As written, the bill directs 15% of the total revenue raised to “transit and mobility services,” which the bill does not define. This would allow portions of new revenue to be spent on transportation network companies such as Uber/Lyft or on private, for-profit van services. RVA Rapid Transit supports an amendment to specifically direct the 15% “transit and mobility services” funding to GRTC or its successor.
As written, the bill sets a requirement for participating localities to maintain at least 50% of their FY 2019 level of GRTC funding, referred to as Maintenance of Effort. Across all participating localities, this is $3 million less than GRTC’s FY 2021 budget. RVA Rapid Transit supports an amendment to change the maintenance-of-effort date from June 30, 2019 to July 1, 2020.

RVA Rapid Transit looks forward to working with the region’s localities to use this new funding opportunity to support more frequent and far-reaching transit and to improve transit access and overall safety for riders—including pedestrian and bicycle connections.