In November 1996, I wrote a piece titled “Are We on the Road to Ruin?” analyzing the transportation challenges that a full decade later enjoyed the attentions of the General Assembly. The debates about how to confront our transit problems generated a great deal of light, but not much heat.

In the '96 piece, Dan Lysy, then and now the transportation director for the Richmond Regional Planning Commission, gave me one of the best quotes ever in my career, a succinct explanation of the challenges we face when it comes to transit planning.

He said: “You want a Picasso, and you can only afford Elvis on velvet.” Localities were then, and now, frustrated by a lack of leadership on the issue, but also funding sources.

And, well, my colleagues and I have written about it, plenty, here, here and here.

So I was taking in my morning paper today, and right there on B2 was this: “Meeting on Regional Transportation Planning Is Tonight in Richmond,” which came as some surprise to not just me but others in the community.

The time — 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. — straddles the leave-work-go-to-dinner-commute period, and that may mean attendance could be sparse, even for one of these kind of policy/transit meetings. Still, next to education and public safety, transportation is one of the most important aspects of the region’s future. But it’s on Forest Hill, and I left my car parked at home today. Plus, I’m probably working late.

I’ve sat in on any number of grand planning and strategy sessions and town halls in which people sort of agree we should have more transit, but when it comes to paying for it, politicians scuffle and look at their feet, while some grumble about “subsidizing” and “let the market handle it.”

Like that’s working out so well.

So it all seems to come back to Picasso and Elvis.

I'd be all for privatization if the trains could resemble this amazing idea from the short-lived and otherwise fairly silly 1979 show Supertrain. It was one of those high-concept shows that got ruined because they wanted to make it a slapstick comedy; kind of "Love Boat on Rails." I bet that's how it was pitched in the meeting.

But there was a kind of "cruise on rails" as practiced by the American Orient Express. They had themed tours, like to the Deep South or Far West, and highlighted luxury and the use of vintage rail cars. They'd stop in the spring and fall in Richmond, pulling up behind the Science Museum.

Unfortunately, in August 2008, the operator went bankrupt and sold its rolling stock. Makes me kind of sad — what happened to all these people?

That's the deluxe version of rail — and all the sleek sexiness of it, as captured by Hitchcock in North by Northwest, which was filmed "on location" (well, the dining car was a set) aboard the 20th Century Limited, with its famous red carpet.

We just want something that'll get us to D.C. under two hours.

Anyway, I hope somebody can go to that meeting who wants trains, and not to scrap them.