Fairfax County officials say they’ve brokered a deal that would save the county $1.2 million in subsidies to Virginia Railway Express. Supervisors say the proposed policy change will fix a lopsided funding formula that considered total population alongside ridership and forced Fairfax County to fund a disproportionate part of the commuter rail line. The new proposal, officials say, would base the local contribution solely on the number of riders that come from each jurisdiction.

The county, by far the region’s most populous, now pays about $5 million annually of VRE’s total $13.3 million subsidy, though it only provides about 20 percent of the ridership. Fairfax County’s share would incrementally drop to $3.8 million over the next four years. In that same period, other localities that fund VRE will pay increasingly larger amounts. Stafford and Prince William Counties will see the largest increases.

“This was not an easy thing to accomplish,” said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Sharon Bulova, who sits on the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and helped forge the agreement.

The restructuring has yet to be officially adopted by the two boards governing VRE, though it appears officials have already agreed to the proposal’s framework.

wflook@dcexaminer.com